Mistress of Fright

Manya has always loved everything Halloween and enjoys scary stories. She now is thoroughly taken by the Goosebumps series. Has also entered the next phase of writing and imagining her own scary stories - they are very spooky, and mostly every one dies in the end! Oops!

First Chapter Book!

This is one accomplishment I am so very proud of! Manya loves to read and has taken to books like a fish to water. From reading words to sentences to small stories to her first complete chapter book - the last year has been phenomenal!

Here's the book she read. And I highly recommend this series for early readers who want to be challenged with the complexity of a chapter book but ar enot ready for broing dry print yet!

May the force be with us!

Manya has picked up a new obsession these days - Star Wars! Considering I am an illiterate at the subject, Google came to rescue when she was throwing terms and characters at us left right. (How did one parent before the Internet age, I have absolutely no clue.)

Well, we bought her a story book that would be more age appropriate. She picks up tons form the library too and is fascinated by the dark side really :). I have told her she needs to wait a couple of more years to start with the movies. The written word seems to satiate her till then! She is even considering becoming R2D2 - her favorite character form the series - for Halloween - but a lost changes in 10 months!

The revenge of the angel!

I had just finished posting about how M uses books here, that her highness has come up with a new antic - and this is not an antic - it is an obsession. She has now decided she wants to have all the books read to her all the time. I am a borderline believer in karma - but this quick punishment for my apparently blasphemous post is scary, to be very frank.

To give you the complete picture, she gets up in the morning, and as I prepare her milk, she fetches a book for me to read. Milk is sipped only if I read at the same time. Ditto for breakfast, lunch and supper and all the time in between. Sometimes, we go over the same book atleast 10 times, before she fetches another one. What irritates me the most is that she only "pretends" to listen in rapt attention, all her focus is on when I turn to the last page so that she can go get another book!

This obsession has reached to the point that when Vish comes home from work, before he is able to remove his shoes, a book is flung at him to be read. She wakes up from her nap, and in that half slumber-half awake state, she crawls to the first book she can spot, and gives out that low-shrilled cry. 

Apart from the fact that I am tearing my hair out and losing my voice over this sudden "passion", I have realized that in the last one week, I must have read every book atleast 50 times. I swear I can rattle off those books word for word in my dreams!

Don't you dare say, "Awww, how cute." We found it very endearing for the first two days, slightly annoying the next day, very irritating the fourth day, completely frustrated on day five and now we are on the 7th day and have been reduced to a helpless state - we have resorted to hiding books under the couch and what not. Nothing distracts her. We are at our wits' end and are now planning on buying her a new, big, nice toy as a distraction. Wait a minute, is that what this is all about? We'll soon know.

The many uses of books...

M has a decent stock of board books all for herself and she puts them to very good use:

• Books make great blocks. You pile them up and then throw them all to the ground. It's never ending fun because the possibilities of the ways in which they fall are endless.

• Books are great teethers. You can chew on them endlessly.

• Books are best as frisbees (flying discs). Toss them in the air and see them land on somebody's face or some other body part. If that somebody happens to scream, the fun is just doubled.

• Books can be used as stools too. Apparently, it is comfortable to sit on one book while reading another.

• This has to be the most ingenuous use ever. M massages her head with the smaller board books - she just rubs them on her head!!!

• Finally, with all the great pictures and stories, the books can be read too along with mommy and daddy.

(When I see her doing all these antics, I remember the theater workshops in school. The first activity would usually be that an object would be placed in front of the group and you have to come up with novel ways to use it as a prop. And I am beginning to learn that nobody can be more imaginative than an 11 month old!)