First visit to the dentist.

This visit was slightly overdue given the recommendation that a child should visit the dentist 6 months after the eruption of the first tooth. (Yes, I do try to go b the book, as much as I can :)). Anyways, the dentist said the visit was timed perfectly (haa!).

I had prepared M for the visit well - she knew that a lady doctor for teeth, the dentist, would be seeing her, asking her basic questions on brushing and finally checking her teeth and gums. The little anxiety that she did have about her mouth being invaded disappeared at the waiting room - stocked with iPads, bright board books, building blocks, an elf kitchen with pretend utensils and dishes and food, wooden puzzles (M's favorite these days!), a bead maze, a cheerfully painted table and chair set, M had stumbled upon an unexpected treasure!

Unfortunately for M, and fortunately for us, we didn't have to wait all that long - the assistant called us and as she briefed M got more soft toys (what a bonanza) to play with. She got to pick her toothbrush (Dora - Bingo!) and the dentist was a beautiful (daddy will agree), charming, cheerful, and pleasant young lady - who sang to Manya and played with her toy teddy and the cleaning and the mouth invasion (it did include some bt of prodding but M didn't flinch a bit) was a breeze! She told us her teeth were great and we were doing a great job with the brushing (can you see my collar high up :p).

M cheerfully bade a bye and thank you and then she hit a jackpot - she was asked to pick a toy to take home - a bright yellow ball made its way home with such a shiny set of pearls. 

You know some days where everything just falls into place - M was rewarded with an out of turn trip to the park - it was sunny and very springtime like - and we also spotted the first blossoms!

Love, Hugs, and Kisses

At present, M's world is divided into two clear categories: people, animals, insects, plants, things, places etc. that love her and those that don't. Or that she loves and doesn't.

 Ever had conversations with a pint sized know-it-all? This is how they go:

"Mommy bubbles love me." 

"I love spiders, spiders love me?"

"Birds love Manya"

"Does the man (some random guy on the road) love Manya?"

"Waters love Manya"

"Manya loves ducks"

"I love airplanes"

"Dogs love me"

...You get the drift.

What a loving, lovable child, you say. Wait till you see how this love translates to the physical:

"Mommy, I want to hug the bubbles - I don't want the bubbles to get popped" (Often succeeded by loud whining from M, and exasperated sighs from me. WTF.)

"There's a spider in the garage, I am going to kiss it" (Succeeded by panic stricken - yuck, don't do it outburts from me)

"I want to hug the bird when it is flying" (Succeeded by frustrated attempts from me at explaining that human beings cannot fly)

"I want to hug the man" (really, WTF!)

"Water hugged and kissed Manya" (followed by a screaming session on why it is not okay to pour water on yourself at whatever pretext!)

"I want to hug the duck" (Succeeded by desperate running behind a maniac rushing into the pond)

"I want to kiss the whole airplane" (whatever f*&^ that means)

"Mommy, I just hugged and kissed the dog. It kissed me on my mouth and nose and face. (Followed by a cardiac arrest seeing M's wet face and lips and just hoping that the wetness of the lips is not because of ummn "kissing")

The list just goes on. There's too much love and PDA going around. 

(More about obsession with the canines in another post!)

Gems from the past...

This is going to be the last of my India trip posts, I guess.

Some things M came up with on her own during the India trip:

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This is at the time of the Diwali festivities in Delhi - all the lights and diyas did catch M's fancy as she proclaimed, "M loves the dark. Dark is happy". Yes, that does sound morbid and "dark".

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M took a fascination for robots - some rhyme or some cartoon she watched. One day, I saw her touching the wall with one hand and the other hand straight up over her head. When I asked her what she was doing. She very soberly replied, "I am charging".

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M loves clocks and wants us to buy one for her room and every other room in the house, but before clocks were clocks, shed call them time, and this does make for a very profound statement. She looked at the wall clock in my parents' house, and said "Manya want to hold time in her hands". Now, don't we all want to do that?

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M somewhat knows of tunnels - If you go on the DND from Noida to Delhi, you can see lot of under-construction buildings to your right. One early morning as we were driving by, M remarked, "Mommy, so many tunnels going to the sky."

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On our trip from Delhi to Bangalore, a friendly air hostess asked her if she wanted something. M turned around to me and said, "What is the cleaning lady asking?". I would have not minded had the windows of the plane opened and the air sucked me out!

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In Bangalore, M was rather amused with the ac vent for the back seat in my sis-in-law's car, and she said, "The wind is leaping."

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Documenting some old conversations...

I shared these on FB during our India trip when blogging seemed a tad bit difficult. Posting these here now.

M has perfected the art of throwing things - At noon today, seeing her throw mud from the pots in the balcony down, I lost it and yelled at her.
Me: Manya enough is enough. You will not throw anything down - the next time you throw something down, I'll throw you.
M (grinning): Don't say that Mommy.
Me: No, I am serious. If you throw something, I throw you.
M looks at me straight in the eye and with open defiance, throws a fistful of mud down.
Me (with fuming anger): That's it. I'll throw you down.
M (with mock fear): No mommy please don't throw me down.
Me (with real fury): Why did you throw the mud down?
M: Mud not saying don't throw me down.
Me (to myself): WTF.
Me (to Manya): Okay, but did the mud say please throw me down?
M: No.
Me: Well, then you shouldn't have thrown it down.
I thought to myself I had won this battle with reason and my victory applause had hardly subsided that M again threw some mud down.
Me (in a shade of raging red): Again, Why did you throw the mud AGAIN?
M: Mud said, Manya please throw me down.
Me (to myself): WTF WTF WTF - my hair will go grey before we get over this toddlerhood-bordering-on-preschooler phase.
Me (to Manya): You just earned yourself a timeout. Now.
M: No timeout - Manya is very dirty - Let's have a looong bath.
Me: a long pause.....

[If you are still wondering, yes, I am typing this as my daughter is busy enjoying her bath, while I have her towel ready for when her highness decides to step out - PHEW]

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Manya's spin on her jet lag: "Nani's house all day all night. Morning soo dark"
(She refuses to acknowledge the fact that it is she who is sleeping "all day" and up "all night"!!!)

First taste of friendship!

During our India trip, M struck a special friendship bond with our neighbor-and-very-good-friend's daughter - who is just two months younger than her -K. 

It was such a joy to see the girls squeal in delight as they would meet each other every day. Their fights over toys and such were fun as they sorted out their own mess, requiring not-so-often adult intervention. The kisses and I love you's and good nights exchanged at the end of the day were ever so endearing!

M remembers K often though I feel the memory will slowly fade - like happens with most friendships huh - lost in the sands of time as we grow apart. We adults, though supposedly more aware, also often let relationships slip as physical distances seep in - it is sad. Anyways, I am hoping that M and K will continue to re-ignite their bonds and meet with the same fervor every time they meet!

Cheers to sunny days and bright smiles!

M at 27 months

I did miss posting updates at the 2 year mark - better late than never, huh?

We are quite comfortably settled in our Terrible Twos, and it is well, terrible, and ofcourse a lot of other things too!

• I cannot not mention that M is a great talker - she copies what we say - most of the times she gives us back, quite literally, in the right context. Her vocabulary is growing at lightening speed - her sentences are well formed, grammatically complete (and often grammatically correct) - and you know most of it, if you read the latest posts - looks like her conversations are going to to overshadow most of our posts on this blog.

• M has 16 teeth - a big achievement, considering she cut her first tooth somewhere after the 14th month. Four more to go for our cub.

• M's taste in food - varieties, textures etc. keeps changing. She doesn't eat much, as has always been the case, but I must give her her due - she doesn't shy away from trying new stuff. At present, her favorites are peas-rice, fruit loops with milk, chickpeas, blueberries, bread-butter, and bananas - and apple juice! She has been offered junk but doesn't seem to care much for it - she once in a while does ask for chips, chocolates, MnMs and the likes, I don't resist and let her have - I have seen she barely has a few bites of anything - so long so good, eh?

• She has finally taken a liking to her tricycle - she tries to pedal but is not able to complete one rotation of the pedal - I have not made any effort to teach her either - that has been parked for the summer (and for daddy, perhaps!). She plays catch with a ball, quite well. Loves hide-n-seek (though refuses to hide - she only want to "seek"). Loves the slides at the park (a big no to the swings). She has recently shown inclination for long walks while she's in the stroller - this after all these months and months of refusing to sit on it! Also, her highness likes the wind in her hair - she runs in the park with the cold breeze swirling her hair, and then she says, so delightfully, "Mommy, see how Manya is running with the wind."

• M is into a lot of pretend-and-play. I must do a separate post on this. She cooks, cleans, is even a doctor! (I think she needs the right tools now ;)) She also pretends to be characters from her favorite cartoon shows and books. She has quite a huge collection of soft toys and loves playing with them too - she talks to them mostly as I do to her. M also sings a lot of nursery rhymes and introduces a twist every now and then - this too in another post.

• While still on the playing topic, we are looking to upgrade her puzzles - she aces the simple wooden puzzles that require shapes, animals etc to be fit in - she does the shape sorter very well - except the heart shape - which "just does not go in", apparently! The stacking rings are also almost in order, and only yesterday she remarked, "I need more puzzles." :o:O

• Play dough, crayons, sidewalk chalks are the top favorite activities right now - we did some paints too but very messy!

• We have begun potty training with zero luck so far. She loves her Dora pot and stool but refuses to do anything at all. In her words, "it all gets stuck inside." Looks like this is going to be another summer project!

• She continues to be tall for her age and much lower than average for her weight but I have finally stopped fretting - her pediatrician quite encouragingly tells me, "she looks thin, because everybody else is obese!" Oh well, if you put it that way...

• Personality traits right now: mostly outgoing, yet selective when it comes to warming up (with children her age, she refuses to engage in any kind of talk or activity), loves talking, expresses well, quick to love, hug and kiss (I have a post coming up on that for sure), has a bad temper - I mean a really bad one - accompanied with a tantrum and lot of mean spoken stuff (I don't love mommy - I don't want to be with you, I don't want to behave properly - you get the picture!), adamant and stubborn - be it deciding what she wants for her meals or when she wants them, what she want to play, when she wants to nap, sleep, what she wants to watch/read, and so on - she clearly knows what she wants and often does not settle for alternatives easily.

God bless us.

(P.S. One thing that this motherhood has surely changed in me is that I tend to seek God a lot more than in those footloose days :p.)

The Great Indian Vacation round-up!

M's first visit to India was, as expected, very eventful. She thoroughly enjoyed the rather long stay at nana-nani's house - nani a clear favorite from the entire trip. She still tells me she wants to go back or that nana-nani should stay in Portland! 

We took almost a month to normalize sleeping and eating routines - Everybody had lot of fun at M's expense who complained about everything being "noise, hot, and sticky". She was on a self-imposed water diet for the longest time :). But once we were acclimatised, the true Indian in M came out - loving the noises - constant honking, ringing of the door bell, enjoying the cows and the dogs on the road (travelling without a car seat made road trips even more fun!), snacking on spicy stuff that had tears coming from her eyes but the mouth refusing to stop eating!

Her typical day routine included jumping and clinging on everybody - nana, nani, and mama as they struggled to get to work on time while trying their best not to upset an already whining, yet, very lovable puppy (M ofcourse ;)). Nana's daily puja and the conch blowing had her fascinated all through. Nani would get a joyous welcome everyday complete with hugs, kisses, and licks! (I am serious.) - the others came in after bedtime.

Weekends were a riot - mall hopping, endless shopping, eating out, some but of sightseeing, and lots of snuggles and cuddles with our adorable cub!

M met a whole new world of uncles, and aunts, and grandparents, and friends, and neighbors - and am so happy she got to meet so many people who matter to me. Lot of pampering but I am not complaining - she was thoroughly loved and the narcissist that she is, she enjoyed every bit of it. She had a taste of her first friendship - well, the closest a friendship can come to for a toddler - more about that in another post.

Thatha-dadi, Athai, uncle and the first cousins made M's Bangalore trip very memorable. She can still recite everyone's first names, and what each on of them did - for example, akka plays the hoop and has biscuit and choco - She mentions the latter everytime she has her evening milk! It was wonderful to see M instantly take to "akka" - as she went overboard with the kisses and the i love you's!

We came back with overloaded suitcases (what with all the stuff everybody insisted that had to get M - I got some too!), and slightly heavy hearts - and while we are thrilled to be back at home with daddy, et al. I can feel M misses the constant companionship of loved ones and the constant hustle and bustle around the house - so more work for me to keep her gainfully occupied!

(P.S. M as always kept us entertained with a string of one liners and funny phrases - trying to remember some of them and put together in another post!)

The Pursuit of HAPPYness

While I am still striving to do some pending posts, I cannot help but share how interesting conversations with M have become - she is all but 2 but quite the spitfire already. What certainly helps her cause is that she can now (quite delightfully) string words in to sentences which are complete and most often than not grammatically correct.

However, our initial joy is slowly being replaced by reaction that are more on the lines of seizures and cardiac arrests. Can you imagine I have already heard, "Mommy, I don't think I love you"!!! Can you beat that! She is TWO for god sake!

Here's something I shared on Facebook a couple of days back, and need to record it here for posterity.

I was in the kitchen when I saw Manya jumping on and off the couch. 

Me: Manya you will get hurt - how many times should I repeat myself - can you please behave properly!
After a minute or so she enters the kitchen.
Manya: Mommy, I want to talk to you.
Me: Yes, what is it?
Manya: "Mommy I just want to tell you that I don't want to listen to you and I don't want to behave properly - I want to be HAPPY."
And she marched back.

(And here I had been hoping I'd get to wait till atleast teenage to hear that from my daughter )

Our first international flight

Those of you who know of our first flight experience, would appreciate the fact that I was a bundle of nerves flying international - let me clarify - trans atlantic - Portland to Delhi - with two layovers and a two year old. That very well could be the definition of doom, hell or whatever.

I had prepared myself for the worst - I had two huge hand bags loaded with everything I could possible think of to keep M occupied. But most importantly, I was mentally prepared to face the worst - I had also grown ample thick skin for the co-travellers who wouldn't be sympathetic, and air hostesses who would hurry, and airports that would be child unfriendly.

So, this is the big lesson - brace yourself for a nightmare and whatever really happens will be better. In my case ,I was so pleasantly surprised - from this home to that, we were out and about for 30-36 hours and M must have fussed a cumulative of about 2-4 hours. It seemed a lot more then, but it wasn't much at hindsight. For the most part, she was such a cheerful trooper that a couple of times I could have cried at the brave face she put up - being dragged from one airplane to another, from one country to another, from one time zone to another, from one world to another. 

We did not meet any nasty people - everybody was very friendly, more than willing to accommodate us - the TSA guys willing to spend extra time with M convincing her that her monkey needs to go through security and she should let go, playing peek-a-boo with her while Mommy sorted out extra security thanks to all the extra liquids being carried; the random strangers at airports waving a friendly hi, helping with the stroller and luggage carts, picking up our bags from the baggage belt; our co-passengers who engaged M in play, even offered to make her paper planes and boats and get their hands messy with her play dough, flight staff that only had encouraging smiles - it is not such a bad world out there huh?

What ofcourse also helped us was - tonnes of finger food, juice boxes, crayons, markers, drawing books, sticker books, play dough, fav books, fav soft toy, bindi packets (the Indian influence ;), lotions and powder (to play with ofcourse), lots and lots of diapers and wipes (to kill time going to the washroom again and again to change and ofcourse wipes to "clean the airplane - don't ask for details ;)), and last but not way bit the least oodles of patience to answer all those questions - the same ones again and again - and to not lose it when she is losing it ;).

We did make it both ways and have our own backs to pat :D. Here are some memorable moments from he airplanes and the airports.

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M was so impeccably behaved in the 30 min flight from Portland to Seattle that the two flight stewards on board came together to applaud her and presented her with an Alaska Airlines badge! She ofcourse didn't realize what the fuss was about but got really excited when I told her this is what the Captain wears!

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Waiting to board a delayed flight from Seattle to Dubai, M walked upto the airlines counter at the gate and said I want to board airplane NOW. The guy was a little taken aback as to how to respond.

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In our longest flight ever - 14 hrs nonstop Dubai to Delhi - M lot her patience after the first 9 hours. She kept on pressing the Help button and after a while of my apologizing profusely each time, she very angrily tells one air hostess, "Manya wants to see the Captain - Why Delhi not coming!" Yes, I did hear a fit of laughter from all around.

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When we finally landed at Delhi after what seemed like forever, M and I hi-fived as the plane was taxing, and M comments, "yay, Delhi has come - Now I want to do potty". She did it right there as the passenger waited to deplane ;)

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On our Delhi to London flight, a guy was seating at the aisle seat and M tells him ever so rudely - "I don't want the man to sit here. Tell him to go away." I was so embarrassed - I told her you need a private jet then - and that opened a whole new can of questions :(.

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In London, we actually boarded the flight after the doors had been shut - I was all huffing and puffing with the running around and it was decided to keep the stroller inside the aircraft rather than along with the valet baggage because there was no time and so as I handed it over to the air hostess, her highness remarks, "Please keep my stroller carefully." The cheek!

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All through our return journey, I heard the following from M atleast 2.35 million times;

"I want to ride on the airplane wings. I don't want to sit on the seat. 

Does Captain love Manya? I want to ride the plane with the Captain. 

I want to hug the lights on the airplane's wings."

I am not sure if I'd actually prefer general crying over such arbit statements!

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At Chicago customs we realized, a bag had been left behind at London - I was talking to a couple of people about it, while M was patiently observing everything. After sometime, she very cutely says, "Mommy don't worry, London will send the package, I will take care." She is such a cuddly bear sometimes! 

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Waiting for the last flight home at Chicago, M and I walked into Starbucks - So, I ordered a hot chocolate for myself and asked M what she would have - I offered practically everything - muffins, puffs, crisps, sandwiches, all the junk everything and she looks around as says, "Mommy, I will just have a banana" - Oh my god, the gasps I got from all the people around! I did buy her the overpriced banana and to her credit she had about half of it!

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Finally, when we landed at Portland - I hugged M so tight - she had been better than I would have ever expected - we were still in the plane then, and she looked around and said to the people in front - "I need to go fast, Daddy has been waiting for sooo long." 

That was such a befitting closing awwww moment!

God bless us!

To the other end and back!

We are back at our post after our big fat Indian vacation that did last quite a bit. All's well - as well a toddler can be. I plan to slowly check off all my pending posts and might consider back dating some for sake of chronology (and so that when I am senile and old, I will have everything recorded in order :p).

One indication that we have travelled far and beyond, is that every day M asks when are we going to the airport next and where are we headed - when I tell her nowhere, she offers, "okay, let's go the market, mall or the doctor's"...Yes, I have to bring some kind of structure to her days - have some rotating activities, join a play gym, I am even thinking of sending her to a play school or something on her own - all that and more as the fogginess of the jet lag clears off.

Signing back in...