Ages 4 and 3

Ani talks rubbish, when I scold him he says "then you delete what I said".

Govindajja used to say 'pan' for 'fan' to talk to kids in baby language. Ani found it funny and he said, "ajja... it's fan, not pan. Let's delete pan. Ok?"

Kids were having singing competition between themselves holding an old webcam mic - Aadya sang a song, Ani sang the next one, and so on. After some time Ani ran out of songs, so he made a new one. "Light light ellidde? Light light illidde" in twinkle twinkle little star tone. Aadya sang her next one. And Ani's next song was "fan fan ellidde?"!

In july(2016), we went to bannerghatta zoo, kids loved to see animals and they wanted to sit in fairies wheel. But after dad bought tickets and we went closer to the wheels, kids started running back. Then we had to pull you to the fairies wheel, both of them were quite scared to sit in spite of us holding you tight on our laps. We had to ask the operator to slow down a bit. But once we got off it, they went around so proudly telling people that they had sat on fairies wheel. 

Aadya won first prize in vachana singing competition and had to sing on stage in front of the big crowd. I was more anxious than aadya and she sang fine with a mic. So that makes it her first stage appearance. 😉

On oct 23, we went to cubbon park, played a lot, went on a toy train ride, watched musical fountain. Kids enjoyed all of it.

I was preparing Aadya for her story-telling competition and when she said a few lines in English, I gave her a cherry as a compliment and gave one even to Ani. After they ate it, Ani asked for another. I said, when Akka says another story, I will give you the next cherry. Immediately Ani started "Ondoorili ondu..........(looked around and saw oven) oven itthada. Obba maani adara thundu maadidanada. Ambaga amma joru maaditthada. Matthe avange adara thundu maadlaaga heLi gonthaathada. Amma, kathe heLide, cherry kodu"!

I taught kids about our brains and told that brain tells us to do everything. "See you lifted your hand now? Your brain told you to do so". A million questions followed after that as usual. The next day, aadya hit ani. When I shouted at her, she said, "don't scold me, my brain told me to do so".

Both my kids have very bad searching skills. Aadya is comparatively better. But Ani surely gets the "worst searcher" award if there was one. There is his blue toy airplane 45 degrees towards his left and one foot away from him. He calls out standing in living room, "amma, where is my blue airplane?"
Me - it must be there in the living room
Ani - I searched everywhere in the living room and it's not there.
I peep towards the living room from kitchen with my hand soaked in dosa batter and see his airplane right there.
Me - see, it there right in front of you.
He looks straight towards the wall and says, it's not there.
Me - not on the wall ani, near your feet.
Ani directly looks at his feet.
He - I can't see it.
Me - look a little bit in front
He looks 2 feet in front and says "not there"
Me - little closer
He looks 1 foot away from his feet, but at 90 degrees.
Me - turn towards your left
He turns 90 degrees towards his left and says "not there"
Me - not completely left, now turn a little towards your right.
He turns 180 degrees and says "not there"
I got fed up, but now so desperate to somehow make him search his plane himself.
Me - turn around
Ani turns 360 degrees, totally back to the previous position and asks "where?"
Me - behind you
He turns back 180 degrees and "where?"
Me - search 1 foot away from you everywhere
He looks everywhere except the place where there is the toy.
Me - ok, I am done instructing. I go close to him, pick his airplane, give it in his hand and say "here it is"!!!!
Ani - oh!!! You finally got it amma!!!!

There was a picture of lungs on the kids' cough syrup bottle. Aadya asked where is that body part? I explained about lungs, breathing air in and out and showed where it is in our body. Kids were happily listening. I got even more inspired and told them about the heart too. Anyway they were listening to me. So explained about blood circulation, heart pumping the blood, made them listen to heart beat. After some time, I hear Ani talking to Aadya, "Akka, see I have 1 more heart here on my leg". I expected Aadya to correct him, but heard her replying to Ani, "I have 2 more here, one on my toes and one on my hand". I came out to see their "hearts". And they were showing their tiny mosquito bites. Then I realised that there was a little bite on Ani's chest earlier when I pointed to his chest and explained about the heart!

This year we celebrated both their birthdays the way they wanted. Brought princess doll cake for aadya, the one she chose and blue car cake for ani which he chose. I decorated the wall with many colourful balloons, happy birthday banner and colour papers for both the birthdays and they distributed cake to their friends in the apartment. Kids were happy, so we're we.

When Jerry splash milk on face, when Donald duck dip his leg, when kids play in rain, every single time Ani's question - adara angi chendi aata!? He loves to play in water, but doesn't like when his clothes get wet. Ani always cries even for a single drop of water on his clothes and immediately wants to change even if a drop of water falls on his clothes while washing hands.

Aadya woke up from afternoon nap and made thamma say - udiyappaga aathu thamma, "karagre vasathe Lakshmi" maadu. And he did.

Ani's ears got pierced on 9 may, because he insisted on piercing because his sister has earrings.

26th may - we shifted to blore.

June 1 - Aadya officially started going to school, JSS Public School, nursery.

January 2016 - Partners in Mischief! - No More Individual Diaries -

Stories keep overlapping if I keep your two separate diaries. So since both of you have crossed 2 years and since all your baby milestones are crossed, and because you are always partners in your mischief now, there is no point in writing the stories twice! So here after the diary will have both your stories together. Once you grow up and read this, please don't count the number of sentences I have written about each one and fight, "amma, you have written more about him / her and you love him / her more!" No, I equally hate you both!!! Errr, equally love you both!!

Difference between my thoughts and my 3 year old Aadya darling's thoughts. When I see a bed, I think that it is for sleeping and she thinks it is for jumping. When I see a window, I think it is for light and air to come in. She thinks it is a ladder to reach the roof. For me a chair is to sit, for her it is a prop for gymnastics. When we go for walks, I say "Yuck! There is cow dung, watch out!" She says, "Wow! See cow dung! It's beautiful green and so soft!" When we get ready to visit doctor because her brother is sick, I grab some clothes in a hurry to change and tell her to pick a pair for herself. She comes out holding her brand new frilled party frock! 5 Minutes before sleep I try to shut my mind for the day and stop talking. And Aadya's mind says - Oh! Only 5 minutes left, let me talk as much as possible now from dogs tail to dosa breakfast and from lollipop to twinkling stars to wheels of the car and Masha's fountain juttu! And sing as many songs as possible before falling assleep. I relax my body on the bed. And Aadya keeps her hands, legs, tummy or buttocks as high in te air as possible. After 5 minutes I am still trying to sleep, but my thoughts are not willing to stop. And Aadya is trying her best to stay awake, but sleep is not willing to stay away. Her little hands, legs and bum all fall on the bed and her mouth is still open as if to complete her sentence!

On a random day,

Aadya - Will you become ajji when you grow old?

Me - Yes.

Aadya - Which ajji will you be?

Me - Umajji.

Aadya (with a sad face) - enage matthe amma illeya? Kaane aavuttalda? (Won't I have a mother then? Will she go missing?) Then she hugs me, cuddles and kisses.

Ani sang - daddy finger daddy finger, where are you??? Mommy finger mommy finger, where are you???? and then he paused. Aadya was watching him sing and immediately looked at me and said - "Ani's song is loading...!"

When we were travelling to Mangalore, I pointed at kids favourite digger on the road and told "See! There is a JCB". My 3 year old Aadya told me, " No amma, it is a Hitachi, watch carefully. JCB has wheels and Hitachi's always have chain. So this is not JCB".

These days I have no sense of dates or weeks or months anymore. If someone invites us for a function with the date, I start from looking at my phone for today's date. All I know now is my kids' ages in days and weeks and months!

Aadya for the very first time stayed away from me on 28th December. Ani missed Akka a lot that week. She went to Jogibettu with ajja-ajji after the thithi at our home on monday. We went to Jogibettu on the week end. She had been crying every time we come back home from Jogibettu that she wants to stay back with ajja-ajji there. But we had not left her alone there. And this time after thithi, when they climbed the car to go home, she sat in the car and refused to get down. Finally I had to pack her bag and put in the car. Ani too cried his lungs out that even he wanted to go, and slowly fell asleep for his afternoon's nap. He kept asking for her, while playing, he would keep things for her and call aloud for Akka. When taking his blue pencil, automatically he kept pink for Akka and called her. Left space in his cycle seat for Akka. Then I had to play as Akka and run behind Aadya's rabbit as he ran behind his turtle. First day, after she left to Jogibettu, I had to go with him by lift to the kitchen to see 'hulivesha', and the second day dad went to see it. For the first time, dad got to know that in your 'hulivesha pretend game' there is an actual 'huli' picture involved in it.

On 25th december, Aniket fell while running with a tumbler and hurt his nose, quite deep. Looks like it is going to be a scar forever.

Aniket plays funny pretend games these days. He stood holding two hands together and said amma is carrying Ani. I was far and said, I am not carrying you, I am here. He said right hand is amma, left is Ani. So amma is carrying Ani!

Aadya loves to give tongue twisters to Aniket, though she herself cannot pronounce 30% of the words correctly. She always makes him say 'Blabli' and he always says 'bal bil', makes him say 'durga' and he says 'duruga', and they both laugh together.

Ani to Vijayajji - I can't pronounce kitna.

Vijayajji - You just said kitna.

Ani - Not that, I can't say kkkittttnaa.

Vijayajji - Kkkittttnaa!?

Ani - No.. Kkkkiish...tnaaa.

Vijayajji - Oh! Krishna??

Ani - Yes!!! That is the one, I can't say that kkkittttnaa.

Ani has a special word order to ask questions. We usually ask, "Mudde helidre yavudu? Puttur helidre elli? Straight helidre hengippadu?" And, Ani asks "Aavudu helire mudde? Elli helire Puttur? Hengippadu helire straight?"

Aadya loves to hear stories and wants us to make stories of the incidents for jer to understand. She wants bed time stories, she wants childhood stories of jerself, she wants stories for everything that happened. Ajji told her the story of lord Ganesha and how he was made to stand near the bathroom to stop people from coming in, while Goddess Parvathi took bath. After the story, the next day Aadya insisted that she comes with me to the bathroom to stop if people try to come in. Finally I had to let her stand near the bathroom door till I came out.

Aadya was playing with the heavy lid of a cooker and Vijayajji kept telling her to keep it down as it might fall on her toes and get hurt. As usual she didn't bother what ajji was saying and happily carried it around. After a few minutes, we saw her very quoetly sitting in a corner of a bench. We asked her what happened and she showed the tiny drop of blood oozing out from her last toe. Usually, she would scream aloud even for a mosquito bite and let the world know of her pain. So we found something fishy and asked her if she dropped the lid on her toes. She insisted that a fish bit her toes. However we tried to ask her if it was the lid, her only answer was fish bite. So my little girl knows to lie to protect herself!

Ani makes songs for everything, even his random sentences or answers to our questions comes out as a song if he is in a jovial mood.

Aniket is very particular about being dry. Sometimes he cries that his toes shouldn't get wet while bathing him. The minute his hands are washed, he wants to immediately see a towel to wipe right in front of him. I keep his face as the last thing to wash while giving him a bath, because immediately after washing his face, I need to wipe it dry.

It is very easy to make Ani say sorry. He does it without any hesitation, he easily agrees with all the conditions to get chocolates, because he never means sorry nor keeps up the promise. Agrees that it is the last zuuuuy with Appa, but immediately after the zuuuy, asks for another. But Aadya doesn't easily say sorry, because when she says it, she means it and hurts her ego.

When I say shlokas, if kids talk to me, either I only nod my head or say the shloka louder. So kids know it when I say shlokas and they don't like it when I don't reply to their questions. Yesterday it happened again and Aadya had no patience to wait. She wanted me to speak to her and said, "enough of your shlokas amma, God is happy already!"

22 October 2015 - Oh Boy! You are 2!

There are some words and phrases you come across and yet to figure out its meaning and how to use them. You watch your wheels on the bus song and when the baby in it cries, mom says 'I love you' to the baby and and all the heart shaped kisses fly in the air. So your sister calls all the heart shapes 'I love you' and she even has a few 'I love you' clothes. After all these, you too know the words and don't know how to use them. Few days ago, you told me that you know to make 'I love you' water and poured some water on the floor. I wondered what made you think of that phrase, but I concluded that it would be the shape you are talking about. And the next day, you called me, "amma...... I know to make 'I love you burps'! I asked you, how to do that. You burped and told me with excitement " see! I love you is flying on the air!" Oh my! Do you really think that the mommy on your bus song burbs on her baby's face to stop crying?!!!

Sometimes it gets too frustrating for you when I don't understand what you try to say. You had been playing with play doh only to make worms with it all this while. I was tired of your game and pretending to be scared, though you were not tired of scaring me with your play doh worms. So I taught you the new game of hiding tiny toys inside the play doh and you break it up to find the 'SURPRISE' inside! You don't mind the same surprise over and over again.  Since the word 'chappaaich!' (Surprise) is new to you keep forgetting it. The next day, you asked me for 'bacchaai'. I tried, but couldn't understand what you were asking for. Gave you bus, thinking that you said 'bacch'. But you cried even loader saying, ' I don't want bacch, I want bacchaai'. I asked you if it was kashaya (you call it kachaaiya). You screamed again, 'not kachaaiya, I want bacchaai. Finally I asked if it was play doh, and you said yes. I gave it you and you remembered the right word all of sudden, smiled with tears in your eyes and told 'bacchaai' alla, chappaaich!'

You are lazy to get things you want while playing. You order me to get a plate from your cooking set. I get it for you. You ask for a cup, and I get it. You ask for a play knife and I start praising you that you are now big enough to do it yourself. I ask you to show me how to get the knife yourself. You happily say that you can do it and run near the cooking play set, pick the knife, come a few steps towards me and say - "See! This is how we bring a knife!" Then turn around and run back to the cooking set, keep it back and you come to me and ask me again, "Amma, now you go and get it for me"!

You do a lot of mischief and when someone comes to warn you, you give your new found open mouth huge smile to please them. Now noone comes to warn you. You have your own ways to please people and make them not shout at you.

You are becoming quite stubborn already and want people to follow your exact instructions and there is no question of compromise. If you want amma to carry you from bedroom to kitchen and Appa carries you till there, you come back running back to bedroom and make me come there to carry you right from there. It is quite often you want things to start from the beginning all over again if something doesn't go as you wished.

You try a lot to jump looking at your sister and cant do it right yet, but you assume you do. But while running, you just dont know how to do it. Walking race is what you call running. Your sister gets a hearty laugh to see you do that. 

I feed you and your sister from the same plate all 3 times a day. But you have your differences - she likes butter on her dosa and you like ghee. So I take a big plate to put everything. 

The fight for the same toy is becoming the common thing at home now. And someone has to be always there keeping an eye on you two to stop the fight. 

We celebrated your second birthday at home with your favorite balloons and sweets and we all had fun together being you the VIP.

Everything you do including the craziness has its cuteness. Your smiles, your mischief, your anger, your sleepy head - everything is so special, so precious and I am surely going to miss the baby Aniket as you are stepping out to the toddlerhood.