Incidents to be remembered - Part 2

Continuation of previous post:

• ·         Abbas was playing some rhymes in his laptop and Mantam were watching and enjoying themselves. He then played a slideshow of some old pics and was asking them to recognize the people in the photos. I was carelessly watching TV as kids were being taken care of. And suddenly I heard Mannu’s outburst. She was conitnuously sobbing and I panicked and rushed to see what had happened. Abbas then told me that he had shown them a pic where he was with his nieces. And Mannu was crying because she was not there with her Baba. Phew! This girl is growing mighty possessive of her dad. And he simply loves it.
• ·         They were drinking Frooti and they had a small fightover something silly. Tammu got pissed off and took out the straw from the Frooti carton, and banged the straw on Mannu’s face. She hit quite close to Mannu’s eyes and the bottom of Man’s eyes bled a bit. We were all mad at Tammu. Once our tempers cooled down, Abbas gave a packet of Gems to Man and told Tammu that this is your punishment. When Abbas was away, I slowly tried to pester Mannu into giving gems to Tammu as well. She tells me by moving her index finger in oscillating motion, “No Mamma! Baba has asked not to give to Tammu na? I’ll tell Baba that you are asking me to give to Tammu!”
• ·         Mannu has composed her own song – “Bambalika li, Tittabita li…”
• ·         A cricket match was gonna begin where India was playing. As usual, when national anthem was being sung, we all stood up and asked Mantam to stand up as well. Next day when they were playing Srilanka’s anthem, the kids stood up and asked us to do the same.
• ·         Mantam were barely 2 then. Abbas and my BIL had taken the two of them to a footwear showroom. Tammu conviniently picked up a pair of shoes, removed her shoes, wore the new pair and gracefully kept her shoes in the showcase.
• ·         Mantam both still have the habit of sucking their thumbs. One of my colleagues told them that f you suck your thumb, I’ll send a Doctor to your home who’ll give you Big Injections. Tammu innocently asked, “Will he bring crayons along with him?” (Their paediatrican had given them crayons during their last vaccination)
• ·         Whenever I give or do something that Mannu likes, she’ll lovingly say “I love you Mamma” and boy! My heart skips a beat…
• ·         Tammu is too fond of our car. Abbas has namedit Bulu (yes he too is extra fond of our car) Whenever we come back home from office, Tammu will spot Bulu in the parking lot and rush to it with her arms wide open screaming “Bulu, Bulu, Bulu”. Once we had gone to a restaurant and while eating Tammu said “We should’ve brought Bulu here. He would have eaten too” We told her Bulu only drinks Pertol. From then on, whenever we pass a fuel station, both the kids ask us, “Aren’t we feeding Bulu?” We say “Bulu’s tummy is full”. They innocently ask “Why Mamma? Didn’t Bulu do his potty?”
• ·         Since they had this habit of putting things into their mouth, we would always tell them that their stomachs would ache if they did that. When they reached a stage where they could express their pains, Mannu kicked off like this – “Mamma, in my hand, stomach is aching”
• ·         The recent rage ‘Sheila ki Jawani’ took the avatar of ‘Seema ki Jawani’
• ·         I had put on Mehendi on their hands and Tammu, the ever-impatient soul wanted to wash it off as soon as I was done drawing on her hands. I told her if you wash it off, you will not get a good colour. Mannu jumped saying “I won’t wash my hands as I wan colour” Next day I put on Multani Mitti pack on my face and since Mannu was very curious I smeared a bit on her face too. When I washed my face, she told me “Mamma, don’t wash my face. I won’t get good colour otherwise.”

·          

Incidents to be remembered - Part I

They say ‘Kids are a form of god’. They sure have powers to relieve your stress, conjure a smile on your face, make you forget all your qualms and worries. I am double blessed to have twin fairies for daughters….

They’re going to turn 3 in a couple of months from now. How time flies! It seems like just yesterday that I was counting their age in days. They have grown big enough to choose their apparels and accessories (although I don’t entertain it), they ask me what I was packing for their meals, have also begun demanding specific dishes to be sent the next day. They learn by imitating elders’ actions and words. Teaching by examples is the best way to get them do, what you want them to do. I have discovered that enforcing orders is not gonna work always and they’re gonna develop a bossy nature and orders would be boomeranged at you. If you want your kids to be polite, you better treat them kindly too. I have become a better person in my efforts to inculcate good habits in my kids. All I had to do was practice the so called ‘good-habits’ myself and the kids learnt by mimicking me.

I try to keep my cool most of the times. But I am not a saint after all and do lose my patience after a strenuous day at work and no recreation other than two toddlers to tackle. Blogging sure gives me an unknown satisfaction specially when I can connect to so many friends I have never seen or met. Yet I miss them if they don’t post for several days together.

I am somehow drifting from the topic. I haven’t been updating this blog recently. So have missed out on documenting all the recent activities of my daughter which I would like to recollect at a later point of time. I’ll just randomly write incidents or their actions or talks in a random sequence:

• Tam: ‘Mamma, can u give me your ear-rings?’ Me: ‘No Tammu, you are small now. I’ll give you ear-rings once you grow big.’ Tam: ‘Ok Mamma. So are you gonna give ear-rings to Baba (dad) once he grows up too?'

• Scene1:

At pediatrician’s:

We are waiting to outside to see the doctor. A baby comes in for vaccination and yells loudly after being injected. My kids witnessing the baby crying shoot  questions at me. ‘Mamma, what happened to baby boy’. Me being the witty mother tried to encash the situation to my profitability and quickly said ‘The baby boy used to suck his thumb. That’s why doctor uncle has given him a big injection’ My girls instantly removed thumbs out of their mouths.

After a couple of weeks-

Scene 2:

My domestic help came to work after bunking for 2 days. Enter her and I bombarded her with all possible Wh questions to know the reason behind her Unplanned leaves. She conveniently made up a story saying she had gone to a hospital because her leg was severely paining. She was unable to move. Doctor gave her pain killer injections and yada yada. Having no say I asked her to do her work for the day. As soon as she entered kitchen, Tammu asks – ‘Mamma, does aunty also suck her thumb?’

• Today when we got off the car and I was gonna drop them at crèche, they had a look at their pillows in the car and said ‘Pillow pillow, don’t cry Ok? Manu Tamu are going to school. We will come back soon.’

• In my obsession to teach them identify colours, I would ask them to name colours by pointing to every object in sight. Perhaps I did it a bit more than required. One night when I was supposed to sing lullaby while putting them to sleep, Mannu suddenly said ‘Don’t sing this song’. I asked ‘What do you want me to sing?’. She said ‘Sing a pink Song’. I turned gloomy black. How do I compose a pink song then and there. With my ‘never face your back to challenges’ attitude, I began humming – ‘Pinky pinky ponky, pinka, pinku, pinko…’ And bang came the howl – ‘This is not a pink song’ I sang 4-5 songs trying to convince her that each one was a pink song but in vain. Finally I had to try my ultimate weapon called ‘Emotional Atyachar’. If you sleep early, THIS will happen, if you don’t THAT will happen.

• Nowadays I don’t have to narrate stories, they themselves volunteer to tell some stories. If Tammu starts, it’s difficult to stop her. Mannu gives blank boring looks at her and plainly nods her head. (Exactly the way I listen to Ma) Tammu is least bothered about whether the listener (irrespective of whether he/she is listening or not) is interested in listening.

• Tammu’s favourite nursery rhyme is ‘Johnny Johnny’ coz she winds it up with just 2 lines – ‘Johnny Johnny yes papa, Open your mouth hahaha’

• Mannu loves books and enthusiastically sits to study with me. Tammu is forced to sit and study. She will say ‘I’m not feeling good Mamma’, ‘I’m feeling sleepy Mamma’, ‘I’m feeling hungry Mamma’. I read a book and ask them to repeat what I said. Mannu would repeat obediently whatever I say. Tammu would also do so a couple of times. She would get bored easily and she would say ‘Byabyabya’ or simply distort the word I said and repeat it and start laughing at her humour.

• Mannu loves helping me with domestic chores. She knows the exact position of all the vessels in my kitchen cabinet and can keep them in their respective places. One day I was pouring milk into their sippers and I absent mindedly picked up the tea strainer instead of their milk strainer to strain the milk. Mannu observed it from the drawing room and marched towards the kitchen. She picked the milk strainer from the drawer and questioned me, ‘ This is milk strainer. Why did you use the tea strainer?’ I was stunned. I apologized to her. Next day even before I opened the drawer to pick the strainer, she was there to ensure I was picking up the right one. When I did, she acknowledged saying ‘Very good Mamma’. Lol

To be continued…