No Money…

Sometime in the past, maybe 4-5 months ago, when Arjun and I went shopping to the Indian Grocery Store, Arjun spotted a gum ball machine (You need to put in 25 cents and turn the lever there and either some gum balls or some jelly beans would drop into your palm) and he went and stood near it and kept on telling me that he wanted some… I told him that we didn’t have the money and that we cannot have some of those.

Now in his little mind, he somehow translated it and decided that the name for gumballs was Money…

Yesterday, we went shopping to the same place and then kept touching that gum ball machine and telling everyone “No Money…” “Amma, No money…” Gosh, was I embarrassed… Some of the passerby’s gave a grin…
Now how did he remember something that happened sometime around Oct-Nov 2005?

Also I felt bad that my son was telling “No Money” – I took a resolution then and there that to the best of my ability he would never ever be in that situation of no money.

Anyway, I did distract him. I told him that the name for that is ‘gumballs’ and not ‘Money’. We did go to the nearby store and have some veggie puffs and his favorite sweet – laddu. It was an interesting event to make him sit there in that shop and have his mini dinner and dessert (laddu) but that’s another story for another day…

Priya

Happy Bday Buddy!

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Arjun's Family

Some 2nd Birthday Pictures

The invite list included some dinosaurs....

Is ok Amma...

Arjun's tub usually has styrofoam A,B,C,D letters and some crayons floating around while he takes his bath... Tonight when I was giving him a bath, he wanted me to write the letters 'B' and 'C' on the white wall of the tub... I picked up a green crayon and wrote the same. While I was putting the finishing touches on the 'B' the crayon jammed and became very messy all over the place (Must have been because it stayed in water for a long time).

Immediately I was telling Arjun "Look, Amma made a mess!" and Arjun was also nodding and saying "Yyyyyesssssss Amma made messy".

(By the way in our house one strict policy that Anand and I adopt is that there is no preferential treatment for either Anand or me... If Arjun gets scolded for something that he should not do, then Anand also gets scolded by me if he does the same thing, and I get mock-scolded by Anand also if I do the same... For example: If Arjun sits on the table, we tell him "No sitting on the table...Onlieeeeeeeeeee Chair!". If Anand or Arjun catch me perched on the edge of the dining table, then Anand would tell me [in a manner that Arjun can hear] - Noooooo Priya, No sitting on the table - Only chair" and then I would respond "Okay..." and get off... That way he realizes that it is not 'him' as a person that gets corrected, but it is the action that needs to be corrected irrespective of the person involved... Gives the kid a consistent behaviour and then that consistency becomes his stability. And then that very stablility gives him the boundaries and the freedom... freedom to explore...)

Dont I just love to digress?

Coming back to this post, let me paste the previous lines for continuity sake...

Immediately I was telling Arjun "Look, Amma made a mess!" and Arjun was also nodding and saying "Yyyyyesssssss Amma made messy".

I then began to clean it up all the while chanting "Amma made messy messy... Clean up Amma... Clean up..." when this little pumpkin catches my hand and says "Is ok Amma...Is ok!" and gives me this lovely smile..

A minute later, he becomes engrossed in imitating a swimming crocodile and making all the toddler war screams...

:-) Forgiveness... Hope he doesnt lose it as he grows up...

I love you, pumpkin... your amma pia.

Jingle Bells Season

Picture taken around Christmas 2005

Arjun's 2nd Birthday Party

Hey all,

Thank you for your birthday wishes for Arjun… I don’t think he really understood much of what was happening on that day. We had a big party for him (Actually more for Anand’s sake as he missed Arjun’s first birthday)

We rented 2 rooms for an afternoon party on Sunday(Luckily this time the 19th fell on a weekend) between 3:30 and 5:30pm. One of the rooms was a huge hall with lots and lots of toys strewn around for the age group of 1-4 and the other room was the place where we cut the birthday cake. We tried to make it a ‘dinosaur’ party as right now he is going through the “I love animals especially dinosaurs” phase.

According to him when he drinks ‘apple juice’, the zebra drinks ’grass juice’, the giraffe drinks ‘leaf juice’ and the lion drinks ‘meat juice’. When he eats chocolate cereal, the lion eats ‘meat cereal’, the cow eats ‘grass cereal’ and the polar bear eats ‘ice-fish cereal’… So you get the drift J

On the family front we had Ganesh Peripa, Peri, Raghav, Priya, Sivaram, Jenny and Maya Kutti from my side and Anand’s parents from his side attend the party. I will try and upload the party pictures as soon as I can…

Thank you again for your wishes and blessings.
Priya

Arjun Kutti....

I was just reading those posts when I happened to look at the blog's name Arjun Kutti... This made me recollect an incident that happened 2-3 weeks back.

Arjun enjoys being around 2 of our good friends' kids - Samy(Neha) and Veni(Vennela) and knows the nick names that their parents have for them - Samy Putta (of Kannada Origin) and Veni Bangaaru (of Telegu Origin) and he also knows that we call him Arjun Kutti (obv. of Tamil Origin)

One evening, he was just chanting Samy Putta, Veni Bangaaru (btw he pronounces Bangaaru like he would Kangaroo - Bang-a-roo :-)) and I caught him and the dialogue went this way...

Priya: Arjun, Samy...?
Arjun: Samy... Putta!
Priya: Veni ?
Arjun: Veni Bang-a-roo
Priya: Arjun ?
Arjun:Arjun...mmmm.... Tiger!!!!
Priya: Huh?

This little kutti now wants to be Arjun Tiger! My kutti little big boy!

Priya

Right Now...

No matter what, this little pumpkin finds his way into our bed by around 1:00 am at the max... he goes to sleep around 8:30 pm and gets up around this time and says "Amma Pia" or "Appa Daddy...." to be picked up and carried to our bed.

...and to confess the truth, we both do miss it if our little bundle is not there with us...

Anyway, to get to the title of this post... Getting up in the mornings with Arjun is a great way to begin the day... I taught him the phrase "Rise and Shine" and now each morning he says with a big smile "Amma Pia, Rise and Shine!" "Appa Daddy, Rise and Shine!"

One Morning, Anand was still sleeping and Arjun and I had come downstairs and were playing... After a while I took Arjun upstairs and told him to wake Appa up. He climbed onto Anand and started saying "Appa Daddy, get up... geddup..."

He did this for a while and when Anand showed no signs of getting up, Arjun climbed further up Anand, closer to his face and said
"Get up RIGHT NOW, Anand Sundaram!"

Needless to say, both Anand and I were in splits...

He individually in different contexts, knows
Anand Sundaram, Priya Ramshanker, Arjun Ram Anand as our names and then he knows "Right now" as something that I say for anything that I need him to respond to immediately...

We just marvelled at how he was able to logically string those words together to convey what he wanted...

Priya