Weekend activity

Betu had got this model making activity book (Navneet Publications) long ago. He was around 4 then so I had kept it away as I felt he needed to be little older to actually do it himself even with help.

Recently I found it again and Betu was quite excited about making the fire truck. So today we both finally sat down and made it. Looks pretty neat to me.

What I loved best was that the book had perforated parts just to be snapped out from the pages. We didn't need any glue or scissors as the perforated, folding lines and slots were all there.

Betu is so happy to see it in its final shape that he wants me to buy more such activity books for him. :)
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Who is who's pillow? :)

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Weekend craft work

Betu wanted me to do some craft work with him over the weekend. Basically he likes to work with scissors and glue :)

He brought out the craft book that Swati had given to him and selected this activity of making paper flowers in a paper flower pot.

Betu chose the sheets to be used for making petals and also as to what shape would each petal be like. And I think it came out pretty good.

He wants to add more flower sticks which we will do in the coming days.
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His take on washing dishes

Yesterday I was cleaning one utensil which I needed and Betu came in to the kitchen...looking at me he asked "Aaapko to bartan dhone mein bada mazaa aata hoga?" (Washing utensils must be so much fun for you).

Me: "Why?"

Betu: "Kyunki aapko paani se khelne ko mitla hai!" (Coz you get to play with water)

Me:  ...zapped and laughing...

Summer holiday homework - Part 3

Here is the duck pond that we had made as part of his holiday homework. It was a bit difficult for him to do so Betu just painted the thermocol rocks and the pond. He also helped in sticking the cutouts and the rocks.

I forgot to take the pictures of the Rhino and the flash cards he had made for numbers 1-99 where he wrote the numerals on one side and the wrote them in words on the other side. He had also made flash cards for Hindi and English words where he wrote a word on one side and drew the picture of that word on the other side.

You know that?

These days most of his statements end with "you know that?" and "that" sounds more like "dat". And this statement is said with an arched eyebrow and a interogative look on his face. Some of these examples are:

1. Jo mere paas Ben 10 wala toy hai woh Prithvi ke pass bhi hai. You know dat?

2. Aaj "Dance India Dance - Lil Masters" mein Remo sir aayenge. You know dat?

3. Maine poora doodh 1 min mein khatam kar diya. You know dat?

4. Maine aaj 10 sixes maare. You know dat?

And there are more like these but I'm sure you get the drift :)




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Craft activities

Till date whenever Anirudh goes to any birthday party, when the khoi bag is broken, he would still collect more of the confetti than the goodies. And so it happened too when we went for a birthday party this Sunday. He had collected plenty of colored thermocol balls this time and was asking me to do some craft with them. When I asked him for examples, he told me lets make a tree. But then we didn't have many green colored ones so then he suggested to make some flowers. And this is what we made using those thermocol balls and some paper cut-outs.

Betu and me both liked the output from this craft activity and now we are planning to buy a packet of these balls and made more things. Betu wants to make a rainbow, a butterfly, a house and so many more things using these thermocol balls.

Summer holiday homework - Part 2

We made this brown paper bag pillow yesterday.

First we decorated the paper bag with cutouts of flowers and butterflies which were colored by Anirudh and then cut to shape by me. Anirudh wanted some star shapes also so I took the easy way out and asked him to use his star shaped stickers. Lazy mumma ehh? :)

Then Anirudh made some crushed newspaper balls and we stuffed them inside the paper bag. Lastly we sealed the paper bag from the open end as well and voila..a beautiful paper pillow was ready!

Summer holiday homework - Part 1

One part of the craft work that we did from his holiday homework crafts last weekend:



We still have to make a Hippo (or was it a Rhino?) and a duck pond. Hopefully this weekend we should be done with it.

Looking at the output, Betu is now excited to do rest of the one quickly too! What else do I want :D

There's no problem!

These days whenever I'm stuck and wonder how to go ahead in doing a certain task, Anirudh suggests what we can do and ends it with "There's no problem!" :)

For example, yesterday night I was telling hubby that we don't have any milk at home even for tea in the morning. So Betu said "Koi baat nahi Mumma. Main aur papa subah ja kar doodh le aayenge. There's no problem!" (Me and papa will go in the morning and buy the milk.)

Other day, he was asking me to bake his favourite chocolate cake for him and when I said there are no eggs at home, he said "Hum abhi ja kar le aate hain shop se. There's no problem!" (We shall go and get it from the shop now.)

So you can see how he is my little problem solver. Love you my jaan!

Zapped

Betu is really excited today because its his papa's birthday. He is planning a lot of things. We will do this...and that. We will go and buy this...etc etc. So basically he is in a vary happy mood.

So on our way to work and his daycare, he says to me and hubby both, "Achha hua aapne apni fight kal hi kar li (me and hubby had a big tiff yesterday). Aaj sab khush khush rahenge aur masti karenge". Me and hubby looked at each other and just smiled.

My grown up baccha

Since the past three days I've been down with very high fever and thus have not been able to help Betu in packing his school bag. And all these days he has been doing it himself deligently without me ur Hubby asking him to do it.

And today when I asked him to bring his daycare bag so that I can pack it, he tells me to take rest and he will do it himself. And he did proceed to put in everything one by one and the zipped up the bag and said "Ho gaya!" (All done!)

Betu, you are my jaan. Mumma must have done some really good deeds in previous birth to have such an adorable and sensible boy like you as my son.


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Some more questions...

If you would have noticed Betu has been asking a lot of baby or pregnancy related questions to us. Most of the questions would be directed at me but this time they were directed to his papa dear.

Betu: Boys ke tummy se baby kyun nahi nikalta? Sirf girls ke tummy se hi kyun nikalta hai?
Papa: Aisa hi hota hai Betu.

Betu: But girls ke tummy se girls nikalni chahiye and boys ke tummy se boys..

Papa had no answer to that and neither do I. Do you?

My big boy yet my little baby

Big boy: When he tells me to drive carefully when he sees lots of traffic on the road or if he sees someone driving badly.
Little baby: He still likes to hold my hand when crossing the roads.

Big boy: When I see him taking care of his younger siblings and friends with so much care and tries to protect them from any harm.
Little baby: He still likes to cuddle with me every morning when he wakes up.

Big boy: When he gives me and hubby gyaan about not talking to each other in loud voices.
Little baby: When he still cries when he is sleepy and tired.

Big boy: When he always comes and asks me if he can help when I've guests over and doe everything I tell him perfectly.
Little baby: When he still wants me to feed him at dinner time and refuses to eat on his own.

Aap cheating kar rahe ho!

Anirudh came over in the evening to my workplace yesterday. And his observation about me was hilarious and too cute. He saw me writing something in the notepad and after a while as I started to check something in my computer, he immediately pipes up "Aap cheating kar rahe ho!" (You are cheating!)

Before & now

BEFORE -

Betu:: "Aap aaj khane mein kya banaogi?" (What will you make for dinner today?)
Me: Aapko kya khana hai? (What do you want to eat?)

Betu: Palak paneer? (Spinach + cottage cheese)
Me: But Betu palak aur paneer dono hi nahi hai. (I neither have spinach nor cottage cheese)

Betu: Rajma rice? (Kidney beans + rice)
Me: But rajma ko bahut der tak bhigona padta hai. (We need to soak kidney beans for very long time)

And he would keep coming with options which I would say no to because of some reason or the other and then he would say...

Betu: To aap kya banaoge? (Then what will you make?)
Me: Daal rice?

Betu (With a sullen face) : OK

This conversation would happen way too often..almost everytime. But now...

NOW -

Betu:: "Aap aaj khane mein kya banaogi?" (What will you make for dinner today?)

Me: Aapko kya khana hai? (What do you want to eat?)

Betu: "Pahle yeh batao aapke paas kya hai? Aap kya bana sakte ho?" (First you tell me what do you have? What all can you make?)

hahaha...can you see the difference between "before" and "now"? :D
He's definitely turned smarter :D

School activties

Every year Betu's school organises "Open Day" where the kids do various activities such as enact stories in the form of skits, sing songs and rhymes, do some word building activities and basically have fun. Last year betu was the giraffe in the "Little blue elephant" story. This year he was the troll from the "Three Billy Goats".

The school organises this open day for pre-primary kids in the open grounds, under the sun during the light wintry days. Each class takes a corner and show their activities there. Its good fun for the kids as well as for the parents.

Here are some pictures from the day -

With his entire class and the class teacher - Sharbani Ma'm

His play "Three Billy Goats"

Singing the song "B I N G O"

Working on a word puzzle

His take on our financial status

A while ago, me and Betu were playing pretend play and I was a shopkeeper and he a customer. 'So after he had bought stuff from me, I asked him to pay. He replied that he didn't have any money. I then asked him to call his mom and dad to bring money. His response - "Mere papa mummy ke paas koi paise nahi hain. Woh hamesha bank card se samaan khareedte!" ("My papa-mummy don't have any money. They always pay by bank cards.") He was referring to credit card when he said bank card).

Any comments anyone? I had nothing to say when I heard him saying that.

Visit to Post Office

Yesterday Betu had gone to Post Office from school and afterwarsd they went to Lodhi Garden for picnic.

So when I was asking him to detail out hat all he saw in the post office, he told me they saw the stamps, the boxes where they sort the letteres for different places, letter boxes, the sacks in which the letters come to post office an also about the stamp/seal that is put at the post office on the stamps for date and location of the post office.

He added that its the same post office that they had gone to when he was in Nursery class and asked me "Kya sirf ek hi post office hai yahan?" Baar baar usi post office mein le jaate hain." (Is there only one post office here? They take us to the same one again and again.)

me and hubby had such a good laugh at his observation. I then told him that since that post office is close to Lodhi garden, that is why they take you to that post office.

Edited to add:
All the kids had posted a letter to the parents from the post office and he has been eagerly waiting for it to arrive.

Dil mein do laddoo phoote

Yesterday Betu came to me and said "Mumma, dil mein do laddoo phoote!"

I looked at him blankly and he giggled. He again repeated it and with a confused look on my face I asked him "Kya?" And he handed me this in my hand - a pack of Cadbury dairy milk shots -


And then proceeded to tell me that this is the byline shown in the ads for this chocolate and that the chocolate is shaped like a 'laddoo' and there are two bits of it in a pack and that is why he said "dil mein do laddoo phoote"  :)

Mera cutie pie!

Rainbow

His love for rainbows started about 7-8 months ago and it still contniues. In almost all the drawings he will draw a rainbow. If you remember, he drew that even in the birthday card he drew for me 2 months ago.

Here are the three paintings he did today and all of them have different kinds of rainbows :)

Finger painting

This is an interesting one..he first dabbed some paints on the sheet and then folded it thrice so that the paints would merge with each other.

This one he painted using an icecream stick

I loved all of these Betu! You are 'amazing'! :)

So many questions...

These days Betu's questions either leave me speechless or laughing. I guess the latter category can also be clubbed with the 'speechless' category since I am laughing so hard that I cannot say a word :)

I will tell you some incidents and am sure you would feel the same.

Incident 1
He is talking to his Dadi over the phone and then out of the blue asks "Aapki aur Dadu ki shaadi kab hogi?" (When will you and Dadu get married?)

While his Dadi was still struggling to find an appropriate response, I explained to him that their marriage had taken place many years ago. while my mind was busy thinking where did this thought come into his mind.

But that was not it. So now that he knew that Dadi-Dadu are married, he further asked his Dadi "Aapke babies kab honge?" (When will you have your babies?)

This left me literally rolling on the floor laughing while still thinking what is triggering all these questions in his mind.

So once I was able to control my laughter I told him that Papa, Chachu and Bua were Dadi's babies but now they are grown ups.

Incident 2
Long back Betu was curious about how babies are born. So I had told him in simple words that its an activity that papa-mumma have to do.

And these days every now and then he asks me when are we going to do the baby making activity :P


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It never ceases to amaze me...

...how kids don't need any introduction with other kids to play with them. They don't need to know the name or for that matter anything at all before they get pally with them. Even when they are meeting with them for the first time.

Names, age, backgrounds, caste, creed - it doesn't matter to them.

We adults definitely need to learn some lessons from our children :)

All those who agree say 'Aye!!'

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