The Food Express

San is growing naughtier and more vocal with each passing day! Questions and stories and anecdotes and fairy tales and friends! She's got so much to talk about and ask. :-D And with her grandparents around these days, she's got more freedom of speech and expression! ;-)

San's newest interest is FOOD. She watches all food channels with me and always wants to help me out in the kitchen, although, most of the time, I shoo her out of the kitchen telling her that kitchen is not her workplace (I know I know, I shouldn't be doing that!) So one sunny day, she tells me that she wants to cook and she'll do it without using the gas stove and the knife. Sandwich is what she wanted to make for Mommy. I let her do it this time. And what I got is this lovely little surprise!

She didn't like the fact that I took the picture by uncovering the contents of the sandwich but that's what I wanted you all to see - the very cutely chopped tomato. <3 <3 She used one of those plastic knives that accompany the birthday cakes. I guess I should let her in the kitchen more often now! :-)

====

Her school starts on Monday next week. Same school, same classmates, same van and a new class, a new teacher, a new bag, new books, notebooks, lunchbox, water bottle, uniform etc. New sessions are fun, aren't they? :-)

Let them be

Been two months since I last posted here! Was traveling yet again. San's holidays are on and we were on meet-the-grandparents mission. And that's how we spend the summer vacations in India! :-)

About San, she is just growing naughtier and more talkative, which is very natural. What else will they be like! She's been on a drawing spree these holidays and that reflects in the Mothers Day card that she gave me. :)

And here's something that she drew in an event at Papa's office:

And this reminds me of something that I wanted to talk about. About letting the kids be, and this is something that I did talk about earlier. At the event I just mentioned, we saw parents pushing their kids to draw the they way they wanted them to, correcting them at every stroke, trying to make their very natural and innocent sketches perfect. Even going to the extent of drawing for them. Why? So that they can win a certificate, which you can flaunt everywhere? So that you can tell the world how good they are at something that is more you than them?

I too find myself pushing San at times... nagging her, correcting her, perfecting her. And later, I feel bad about it. There's something inside us that pushes us to push them. We need to control that urge to perfect them all the time.

Kids are fine the way they are. We don't have to make them look good all the time. They are fine... just fine!

How often do you find yourselves doing this?

This is THAT phase

San loves to look at the 'stars' and the 'goods' that she gets for her writing work from her teacher in her school notebooks. Daily, she shows them off to me, very proudly. Yesterday was another such day. While she was admiring her work, she noticed something on the pages that she hadn't noticed before. She came to me and said, "Look, Mommy! With the stars, teacher had been giving 'this' to me all the time and I never saw it. It's so nice! What is it?" "It's your teacher's signature, San.", I said, breaking her heart.

===

She's growing. Growing taller and louder and smarter and getting really girlish (and tomboyish). It bothers me at times. It bothers me when people see her, talk to her, pinch her cheeks, hug her, and ask too many questions about her. It bothers me when people are around her. Well, it's just the Mommy thing. My kind of Mommy thing. Sigh! I hope I get over it soon.

===

Copyright www.glasbergen.com

San is in that phase where kids love to show off. Show off their skills, their colors, their toys, their house, their friends, just everything. It's cute, but not all the time. It's harmless, but not all the time.

It's also that phase where kids love to point out what other kids have and they don't.  It's also that phase where they threaten you with their tears, their screams, and a lot of other drama. It's that phase where they know very well what works for them and what not. It's that phase where they question everything, argue about everything, and think that they know everything.

Phew!

D is for dance, R is for riddles

Finally, San's school's annual function is done with. After long sessions of dance practice at school, the kids performed really well on the D-day. It's wonderful to see all these kids perform on the stage without any stage-fright and nervousness, something that they aren't even aware of. It was a pure delight to watch San dance and we're a step prouder now! All fluffy! Hoho! :-D

===

Kids are a reflection of us. I've been reading and hearing about this since long. I'm seeing it now, clearly. Sigh! I wish I could handle my patience better and so that San learns the same.

===

There's a new thing that San loves to do now: play riddles. The simple ones. Guess the object/animal/vegetable/fruit, basically any noun, by its first letter, color, and one more helpful clue. So this is what happened today:

Mommy, I'll ask you one puzzle and I'm sure you won't be able to guess.
Okay, ask.
It starts with T, it's an animal, it's white in color, and it's found in the jungle.
(I thought hard for some time and I couldn't guess.)
Ok, I give up San. What is it?
See I told you that you won't be able to guess. (Does a little happy dance here.) It's a Tiger, Mommy!!
Huh? No, San. It's all wrong.
It's right! It's a white tiger!

Kids, I tell you! :-D