Thursday, January 22, 2015

Toddler Thursday 3

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Ritu calls me by different names. She calls me Amma, mumma, ammi, mommy, Arya, muchukku( I sometimes call her that and now she calls me back) and so on. One morning, I was brushing my teeth. Ritu, who just woke up from her sleep, came to me and asked,"Kozhiyamme kozhiyamme, enthedukuva?". (Motherhen motherhen what are you up to?).

From our '365 days- photo everyday' project
It took me a minute to recover from the shocked-cum-surprised-cum-amused mode. But then I asked her,"kozhikunje kozhikunje Amma pallu thekuva. Kozhikunju nannayi urangiyo?"(Baby chick babychick I am brushing my teeth. Did you sleep well?)
This time, I could see that, she was amused and her eyes were twinkling. This went on for many more days with A being called 'kozhiyachan' and MIL as 'kozhiachamma'. 
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Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Isn't that enough?

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To live as the heart desires,
And to be encompassed in love.

To live in gratitude
And to have freedom in all facets.

Isn't that enough
And more than enough?
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A prayer for me

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I pray for you to be a free spirited soul
But for that I have to pray for myself.

To be your fellowman not a dictator.
To be gentle on your mistakes,
So you get to learn from them.
To be an observer of butterfly emerging of cocoon,
And not dampen the spirits by being a helper.

To have the courage to let you go
And conquer fears that I am yet to dare
To be a friend and make sure you get to
Enjoy all the adventures that I experienced.

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Thursday, January 15, 2015

Toddler Thursdays 2

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Ritu is used to eating Indian breakfast almost every single morning. We give her dry cereals only as a snack during our road trips or whenever we want her to sit in her stroller for sometime.

When we go on road trips, we spent long hours in car. We always take a couple of stops in between. But for a toddler, getting strapped to her car seat for such long hours can be very annoying. So apart from books, toys and songs, we use cheerios too as a means to keep her occupied. Well when someone enjoys eating cheerios and eats one cheerio at a time, it can be a good time pass activity.

On our recent road trip to Disneyland, we spent a total of 9 hours in car. Once she got bored she asked for 'cheeooos'. I didn't get what she was asking. She repeatedly told the same thing and when she found I still haven't got it, she clarified it for me," Amma, snacks!". That's when I realized she is asking for cheerios. I gave her the snack cup with cheerios and pat came the response, "Aa atha kunji paranje." (This is what I told.)

In a long queue at Disneyland entrance in her stroller

The next time she asked for her snack cup, I had to search as I forgot where I kept it the last time. An impatient Ritu asked in all seriousness, " Amma evide konde vechu!"(Amma where did you keep it). With her eyebrows raised and fingers pointed, I had a hard time not laughing.

We had also packed some homemade banana chips to have in the car. I was passing on some to Arun and mom when Ritu saw the chips. May be she thought we were not planning to give her chips. Anyways, she said, "Amma chips tharuo. Illel kunjiku bhayankara vishamam varum." (Will you give me chips? If not I will get really sad.)

These days every single thing Ritu says is so cute and I feel like capturing every single of them. She is growing out of all baby talk so fast that I feel soon I might even forget all those words she used to say in her own unique way. 


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Thursday, January 8, 2015

Toddler Thursdays 1

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My friend R who blogs at Quintessentially Yours recently started a weekly segment called Toddler Thursdays. Everyday Thursday she posts something about her toddler. I love that segment and since I have a toddler I am planning to do the same here. So starting from today I will try to post something about my toddler every Thursday.  

My younger sister got married recently. I went along with Ritu a month before her wedding and Arun joined later. We used to take Ritu with us for all the wedding shopping. We did our gold shopping at Bhima, which is a very well known jewelery shop in Kerala.


As complimentary gifts for their customers, they give small bags and pouches with this logo of the boy printed on them. Ritu had one of these bags exclusively for her. She used to take this bag while going to temple with the coins everyone gives her. So I had showed her this logo and told her that this boy's name is 'bhimakuttan'. So from then on whenever she sees the logo in the advertisement boards or other complimentary gifts, she used to say 'bhimakuttan!'. After coming back to US, we forgot all about it as there were no more sightings of the logo.

These days its cold here and we wear jackets to office. Ritu has this habit of removing our jackets as soon as we reach home from office. She loves to unzip our jacket and remove it for us. One day Arun had worn a pull over to office. When we reached home for lunch she came running as usual and wanted to remove Arun's pull over. Arun lifted his arms up so she could remove it. After pulling it off and seeing Arun with his arms up, Ritu promptly said, "Bhimakuttan!". It took us a few seconds to get what she meant. But then we started laughing and she joined in too. 
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