Nursery Rhymes

For a very long time, Aditi was uninterested with the telly. I was not too disappointed, for I am not a fan myself, although the daddy loves the black box. I was glad that the addiction to TV was limited to one member of the family. We bought a nursery rhymes DVD on our previous India trip and I have tried to get Aditi's attention once in a while. But she would never respond and all my efforts were in vain. Her interest remained in the two dozen books that form her mini library at home.A couple of weeks back, I picked up a nursery rhymes book from the library. Our library allows us to pick 15 books on the child's card, with no penalty for non-renewals, and we make full use of it. We usually have atleast ten to twelve books from the library all the time at home. And the rhymes book became her favourite - at breakfast, dinner and sleep time. She'll usually pick an object to take with her to bed - usually a book or a doll or even a pen or her watch. And for a while now, it’s been this nursery rhymes book. So the other day, I tried my luck again with the DVD and suddenly her eyes were glued onto the TV. she was watching every action, trying to imitate them and sing along to every rhyme - half of which she's never heard before. She was so absorbed that she did not notice me leave the room and that’s something for she ALWAYS follows me wherever I go. And I'm extremely glad that this has finally caught her interest.Advantages: I don’t have a little lamb following me around the house. Milk and dinner are done at a superfast pace when watching this DVD. Usually getting her to finish her milk is a very BIG problem. The freedom of not having to sit with her and entertain her all the time is making me happy. And she's learning to sing the rhymes properly(with the tune and the words) and is excited about it.Disadvantages: The only thing so far is dad cannot watch his favourite programmes and the nursery rhymes is the only thing that gets played repeatedly on the telly when the little girl is around. May be I should move the DVD player upstairs and get Aditi to use the smaller TV.

The Domestic Horrors Tag

I love my home and love to cook and serve my family even more. I have lived for most part of my life with my grandparents and there were huge family gatherings all the time, so I am used to the hosting business and continuous flow of guests at home. Except for the occasional lack of salt in a dish or sugar in the tea, I cant really think of kitchen experiences.
And just as I finished typing the last line, I remembered this incident. Aditi was about 8 months old and I had kept dal in the pressure cooker. It was the small 3 litre Hawkins one, so we just put the dal or rice straight into the cooker and add water. Not in a separate vessel as is usally the case with a bigger cooker. And I washed the dal, closed the lid, placed it on the stove and carried on with whatever I was doing - domestic chores. After about 20 minutes, I smelt plastic burning. Thats when I reliazed that I had not added any water to the dal! And the safety valve got burnt i n the process. Since this was an aluminium one, it was not so difficult to clean....
Another one was with the washing machine five years ago. We had just moved into Belfast and ours was a washer only WM. There was no dryer and we had to dry the clothes in the balcony on a line, fasten it with pegs. I switched on the machine at night and since it takes a while, I went off to sleep. Usually the next morning, I would pull the clothes out and take them to the balcony. That day was no different or so I thought and opened the washing machine. Out came buckets and buckets of water. Soemthing went wrong - I dont remember the details, but I spent a good one hour trying to clean my water-logged kitchen. Thankfully the kitchen was not carpetted and had vinyl floors, so I could easily clean it up.

Feeel free to take up this tag and let us know of your domestic horros.

It is called 'Aditi' talk

It feels great when your little one starts talking - properly in sentences - in a language not just understood by the mom and dad, but by everyone. Until about 18 months Aditi was happy to 'point and talk', and I almost always seemed to understand what she said. That was a huge relief compared to the initial months when crying was the norm always. Thanks to her nursery, she started speaking in sentences pretty soon. And for a while now, she can have a complete conversation and be pretty much understood by everyone around her. She learns new words everyday. And is extremely happy to use them in her sentences.
Rather than just saying the word aloud, she usually likes to say "It is called xxxx". And she can understand every word of what we speak in my mother tongue. She still finds it difficult to make sentences and use them in my language, which is not what I wanted, but I think as long as she can understand and respond to what we speak, it should be okay for now. I'll gradually build up her confidence and slowly get her to speak in my language.
Continued after 2 weeks....
I'm usually greeted with a 'I dont like this Amms' or a 'I dont want this Amma' especially when I go near her with a cup of milk. What is it that happens to kids when the transition from bottle cup takes place? My child loved her bottle. That would actually be an understatement. She loved the bottle so much that it took me almost five months to make her give up her bottle completely. I managed to completely wean her away from the bootle only when she was about two years old.
And back to the point of talking, books are her favorite. They have always been so. And she now reads sentence(more so recites them from memory) from every single book around the house. Its good that we can borrow upto 15 books from our local library on her card. We make full use of it. Evenings are spent reading every page of all the books. And books give her company during breakfast, lunch and dinner. Literally every meal that she has at home will be with the help of books.
And the pram has been bid goodbye. For almost two months, we have been walking to and from the bus stop. On rare occasions when its raining heavily, we use the pram. Otherwise its walk or carry. The 'carrying' bit is not so often, except when she sees a dog or cat too close to her for comfort or on days, when she's really tired. And I gladly oblige. We do the typical mother-daughter thing and chat on our way to and from the bus stop - about everything we see on the road - the cars, birds, other children playing in the compound/pavement, the occasional biker, just about everything. The only problem is that I can no longer do any shopping at lunch time and safely out the bags away in the pram basket. Since we already have enough bags to carry aka my office bag, her nursery bag and Aditi herself, shopping at lunch time has come to a standstill! But I do enjoy walking and chatting with my little girl. Reminds me of the time when I would drive my mom around.
I finally managed to change the header, since the summer has finally arrived in Sheffield.