Our kids sure have a busier social life than us!

Every month at least we get one invite to attend a birthday party from one or the other of Anirudh's playmates at the school or the daycare. And its so true that their social lives are busier than us. Its because of Betu that we socialise whatever we do. So yesterday when we picked him up from his daycare, he showed us 2 invites in all the excitement you can ever imagine! Why would he not be excited..one had spiderman and the other had mickey mouse on them...the characters he so fond of!

While I open and read them with him in my lap, he is talking about the cake and the balloons and the works that they have at birthday celebrations! However all the time he was just talking about "Tina's bday!" I guess he must be more pally with Tina compared to Tara - the girl from the other invite. So pointing at each card one by one I told him "This is Tara's and this is Tina's". And suddenly I hear huge bawling! I was shocked for a moment as I didn't know what triggered it. I thought maybe the invite touched him somewhere on teh face and he got hurt. So I kept asking him "Kahan chot lagi? Kya hua?" and Betu is crying louder and louder with tears flowing down his cheeks without saying a word. I asked him to calm down and tell me what happened as I was totally clueless why he was crying.

So in between all the wailing he said something which sounded like "Yeh mera hai". And that's when it suddenly clicked to me as to what triggered all the drama. He thought I was saying that those invites belonged to Tina and Tara and not to him. I couldn't stop my laughter thinking how he had perceived my statement "This is Tara's and this is Tina's". God! How does the minds of the children work is still a puzzle for me. I'm learning each day!

So once I understood the reason for his bawling out, I told him "Haan Betu, yeh aapke hain par invitations Tara aur Tina ke hain". While still a few tears were rolling down he goes, "Nahi yeh mere hain!" I realised its no point talking to him further on this and said "Haan yeh aapke hain!" and he started cuddling with me and after few seconds, the crying stops totally and the excitement and talking about the birthday party returns! :D

However the best part was DHs comment in the end. Once Betu was all happy again, DH laughingly tells me "You must blog this!" I looked at him, all surprised with mouth gaping wondering if I heard right! He..talking about me blogging this..?? In fact I told him this upfront that I'm so surprised you told me this since you don't even read it yourself :P

And it was yesterday only when I commented on poppins post saying how unconcerned DH is about me blogging about Betu despite having given the URL to him. Sigh..such are the men!

Yet another daycare!

It will be the 3rd ever since he started going to one since the age of 9 months. The first one was Kiddies Corner in Lajpat Nagar. After a stint of one year we shifted him to Pink Elephant in New Friends Colony. Reason for shifting was "Too many kids, too little space" which resulted in Betu catching infections quite often. And now just after about a year and few months at Pink Elephant, we need to look for another one. I would not have moved him from here at all if things were in my hands. The playschool and the daycare is closing down because of space issues. This was a rented place and the owner now wants it back. The management has not been able to find a place within its budget without increasing the costs for parents. We already were paying about 6K per month so I wonder what they would have increased it to. So they decide to close it down.

It was the perfect place we could look for. Be it the space, the facilities, the teachers..just about everything.

Anyhow, no point in thinking too much about it. We have already looked at 2 other options and now we need to decide which one to go for. One option is The Little Scholar and the other is Mother's Pride. Me and DH went today and saw both of them. We liked both. I was really amused with the bathrooms in one. They had washbasins built up for heights of toddlers. So if any adult would stand next to them, the heights of those basins would not even reach to our knees...maybe just halfway between knees and ankles! I found the idea so very cute and amusing!

Both these day cares are located quite close to each other and close to both our offices too. I guess a little more closer to my office than DHs. So by this weekend we need to decide on one and then take betu to the selected one on Saturday before he starts going there full time from Monday.

I've been trying to mentally prepare Betu by talking about a new school and new friends and as far as talking about it goes, all is well and he seems excited. Rest only time will tell.

Knowing his nature, I will give him about max 2 weeks to settle in there. Since he has been going to a daycare since he so small, I feel it won't take more than that. But also now that he's a big boy and has his share of likes and dislikes, I'm giving him that much space to settle down. I know for sure he will settle quite well.

I feel really proud of my son and thankful too when I look back when I started sending him at 9 months. If it was not for him, I would not be working as of now. If he had not adjusted in the daycare, things would have been totally different for us. Its not that I need to work to make ends meet. I need to work because I like to. I really appreciate mothers who quit working after having their child! Hats off to them. Staying home whole day and just managing the house will drive me nuts within a week. Managing the house is just not my cup of tea.

I would be lying if I just attribute it to the fact that "I like to work". We could easily do with extra money to give him a good lifestyle and good education and also to give us some pocket money for some of our whims and fancies :D. So basically its the need+want to work combined with need for money.

What a night!

Don't start thinking on something exciting and happening on reading the title! It wasn't and wish to never have it again! It was one of those sleepless, testing your patience night. It was one of those "cramping in the legs" night for Betu. Yes..one of those. He has been having cramps in the legs since about 6-7 months..but not regularly. The frequency is more like once in 2 months but one can see how uneasy he gets. Its a mix of him wanting to sleep and the pain from the cramps. So lot of whining and tossing and turning mixed with 15 min naps in between.

We did talk to the paediatrician when it happened the first time and the third time. But all we heard that this was was growth cramps...something that we were expecting to hear. You might wonder why "expecting"? Just a few months before he had his first one, we had read an article about cramps in kids. The article also related the cramps to growth spurts. So when the first time Betu had a cramp, both me and DH immediately thought of the article. But just to be on safer side, we took him to the pead. Second time, we just tried to calm and soothe betu as we knew what it was. When it happened third time we again took him to the pead and to the homeopath who is treating him for his Bronchitis Allergy. They both said the same thing again - "Growing cramps". This is the 4th one he has had so far.

But what amuses me or irritates me is that why do these cramps occur only at night? Why? WHY?

And to add to all this was my migraine. I had a bad one yesterday. I'm sure it was due to all the smells of paint (we are getting our woodwork painted). It had been bothering me since day before. So because of my migraine, I slept off early at 9 PM and left Betu to be taken care by DH. Like always, Betu must have given DH a hard time and DH was out and over with his patience. So when this cramping thing started, DH was getting very irritated at Betu. So despite my throbbing pain on the left side of my head, I tried to take care of Betu. And after bit of cuddling and calming he finally slept for what seemed like an hour again to be woken by with another bout of cramp. So again the whole process started. I pressed his legs for sometime and then DH took over, some cuddling etc etc. Finally he slept well around 4:30 in the morning and we let him sleep till late as we both felt he needed that sleep after such a tiring night.

So now you know why I titled the post as I did!

Few more memorable incidents.

"Tumko pasand lagta hai??
Thats how Betu asks if we like something :) Its like a mix of two sentences, "Tumko pasand hai?" and "Tumko achha lagta hai?". He had been using this sentence whenever we would go to a shop to buy something. And whatever the sales person will show, Betu will point at each one and say "Tumko pasand lagta hai?" :D And if we will ask him "Aapko achha lagta hai?" He would nod his head. And sometimes he would pick such awful stuff and say "Yeh achha hai!"

***

"Oh Wow! Yeh mera favourite hai!"
On friday night I was making myself a pair of jam and bread slices when Betu walked in the kitchen. And as soon as he saw me spreading Jam on bread he goes "Oh Wow! Yeh mera favourite hai!" I was totally awed at his expression. I never used the word "favourite" with him nor have ever tried to teach him this word. So him picking up new new words is quite amazing for us!

"Ab aapki turn hai!"

It was around 8:45 PM (yesterday) if I remember correctly. I was starting to put one load of laundry in the washing machine. Betu's papa was talking to his Dadu at Jaipur. Since he also wanted to talk, DH stopped his conversation and gave the phone to betu thinking he will continue after Betu is done talking.

(I don't have the other side of conversation since it was our cordless without a speakerphone. So I'm putting his Dadu's conversation in grey as I'm assuming he must have said that!)

Betu : Dadu? Aap kya kar rahe ho?
(I prompt him to say namaste)

Dadu : "Aap kaise ho?"

Betu : Namaste. Main theek hoon..

Dadu : must "Aap kya kar rahe ho?"

Betu : Main laptop dekhne ja raha hoon

Dadu : "Aap Pogo dekh rahe ho?"

Betu : Nahi Pogo nahi. Pogo mein fighting aata hai. Woh ganda hai!

Betu : Ok. Bye

And then Betu came to me and wanted me to talk. But since I knew DH's conversation was pending so I told him "Nahi..papa ko de do..!"

He replied back in a stern voice "Nahi..ab aapki turn hai. Papa ki turn ho gayee!" Hehehe...

So I spoke to my FIL and when I told him what Betu said, he had a hearty laugh!

"Meri shaadi ho gayee!"

Yesterday evening we had gone to Lajpat Nagar market for some work. We have a fixed area where we usually park our car and the car parking guy recognises us quite well so he always helps us in getting good parking spots too.

Betu is also quite familiar with the parking lot and which way he needs to take to reach McDonald's! So the moment we parked yesterday, Betu started to walk on his own towards McDonald's and I had to literally run to catch hold of him. In spite of telling him we will have it later, its not dinner time etc. etc. he didn't listen so finally I got him his McVeggie burger with cheese. Was actually thinking of buying the Happy Meal but the toy they were giving him was "Pinocho" from the movie Shrek which was something I knew he wouldn't really appreciate. So decided on ordering a burger separately.

Anyhow, before I go on and on about the outing yesterday, on our way back to car after we were done with our work, he was bought a balloon on demand...those long ones. On way back home, he wraps it around his neck and said "Meri shaadi ho gayee!" For once I thought I didn't hear him right as we had never talked about shaadi etc with him before. So I asked him "Kya?" He again said the same "Meri shaadi ho gayee!" Me and DH burst out laughing and when I asked him "Maala (garland) pahenne se shaadi ho jaati hai?" He nodded his head in affirmation. It was so funny.

Then I asked him "Teri bahu kahan hai?" He goes "Bow?" "Bow to doggie karta hai!" "Usko bow nahi bolte, doggie bolte hain!" :P We were in splits hearing his response!

Just thinking of how he mixed up the word "Bahu" with "Bow" is so hilarious that I can't help laughing even now when I'm writing this!

Testing my patience or being creative?

Betu was literally testing my patience yesterday by doing some mischief or the other. We, myself and Betu, reached home around 6:10 PM after I picked him up from his daycare. Within 5 minutes DH was also home. Like always we had something to munch on, had some juice and then we switched on cartoon network as Betu likes to watch "Richie Rich" which starts at 7:00 PM.

You must be thinking "Cool..a relaxing affair". But wait. It was anything but a relaxing affair. Three incidents happened all in just 1 hour post that.

Incident 1
After watching 10 mins of "Richie Rich" with Betu sitting on my lap, I thought of resting in the bedroom since my back was aching. Since I thought he would keep busy watching it I can get some rest. But sorry no..he wanted to watch it with ME. So I told him mumma is tired so lets play in the bedroom. He agreed and then started to jump on the bed despite me telling him again and again that he might hurt himself. Well I should have been worried otherwise...

During all the jumping sessions, twice he jumped on me. Once his knee hit my pelvic area and it hurt like MAD. Probably on seeing me in pain and realising he's done something wrong, he started crying. I got really angry and asked him why are you crying. "You are the one who hurt Mumma!" Anyhow after some cuddling and talking he went quiet. I thought that was the end of the jumping session. But hell I was so wrong! It soon started again and this time he jumped on my right side of the stomach and again it was his knee that landed there. It hurt like hell! I was almost in tears! Again this time I hadn't said a word to him yet and he starts wailing! I ignored him as I was in too much pain. And the volume of his wailing grew. So DH scooped Betu up in his hands and started talking to him about what he had done and how it hurt Mumma and that he shouldn't be crying but should be saying sorry to Mumma. Well that was that and he went to see his cartoon back in the living room. DH was working on his laptop in another room and I kept resting in the bedroom.

Incident 2
Few minutes later..maybe 5..maybe 10...I got up to just do general house chores and the moment I stepped in the living room and this is what I saw -


When he saw me looking at the floor, he goes "Mumma, maine drawing kari hai!" I was like a erupting volcano by then. So in loud voice I asked him "Yahan Drawing karte hain?" He nodded his head in negative. Then I asked him "Kahan drawing karte hain?" He replied in his whisper like voice "Paper mein." I asked him again pointing to the floor "Yeh paper hai!" He again nodded his head in negative. I just didn't know what to do so I just told him to hold his ears and stand in a corner. He quietly went and stood in the corner holding his ears.

Then I got some water, a scrubber and some liquid soap to clean it up! He had colored up the entire drawing room length. And I was thinking to myself "Am I glad he didn't color up the walls which we had gotten white washed just 7-8 days ago." I started scrubbing and cleaning and my back hurting like mad. (Its another story that I was amused at what he had drawn..it looked like a staircase to me..:P )

All this while betu is standing in the corner holding his ears and once I was done around 1/4th of the area, I looked at him and said "Haath neeche karo!" as I felt making him hold his ears is not a goo idea. I will just let him keep standing in the corner. The moment he heard me saying that he thought his punishment was over and he started to walk away. So I again told him in my angry voice that he is not supposed to move and to keep standing in the corner. I think he realised what big mistake he had done so quietly obeyed. Once I reached almost the end of the drawing, he blurts out "Mumma yahan bhi hai!" pointing to the extreme end of the drawing. I almost laughed but had to stop as I didn't want him to think its OK. I then saw he had colors on his legs also so asked DH to wash them up. I again thought that was end of it! Wrong again!!


Incident 3
After the scrubbing the floors, I came back to the bedroom to rest some more as now my back was hurting even more. And since Betu was with DH, I thought all will be under control. God knows where my mother instincts were to think like that!

After 15 mins of resting I got up as I felt he just needed to spend time with us and we were just busy with ourselves, he is doing all sorts of mischiefs. So I got up and on the way to the living room, I noticed all the bathroom lights were open. So before switching them off I just thought to look inside just in case DH was not in any of them as the doors were shut. I looked into the loo..all OK . I switched off the light. I looked into the bathroom and I froze. Betu was in the bathroom, with our soap and his liquid bath gel lying around. The bucket was full of water and foam and he was making some more foam by putting some soap between his palms. He had made small small pieces of our Nivea soap and when I picked up his bath gel to put it on the shelf I realised he had emptied almost 1/3 of the quantity that was in the bottle.

I was seeing only red by then but instead of saying anything to him, I took him, washed his hands and told him loudly "Go away!" He goes wailing to his papa saying "Mumma ne danta!" and I was rolling my eyes hearing that!

So all in all quite an eventful day when all I wanted was some bit of rest! Sigh....

Main big boy hoon!

Yesterday when I reached Betu's daycare to pick him up, like usual he came running to me with his arms open. And once he's close enough I pick him in godi and we hug each other. Its almost like a ritual for us! I can't remember any day when we have missed out on doing this. But I guess we need to put a stop to it as my back is starting to give away!

So after the hugging ritual I put him down and as we walk towards the car, he suddenly pipes in "Mumma, Main big boy hoon! Main papa ki gaadi chala sakta hoon!"

Every time he comes with statements like these that just leave me awed! So I asked him "Kisne bola yeh aapko?" He goes "Papa ne!" So I asked "Are you sure? I don't think so.."

He thinks for a while and then says "Nahi papa ne nahi bola. Meri Ma'm ne bola ki main big boy hoon!" Then I again asked him "Ma'm ne bola ki aap papa ki car chala sakte ho?" He goes "Nahi. Mujhe pata hai! Main big boy hoon na! Meri Ma'm ne bola ki main big boy hoon!"

And then he spotted my car and goes "Very good Mumma!" like he always does on seeing my white Maruti!

Some more memorable incidents

I had posted about some of Betu's memorable incidents earlier. Some more cme to my mind recently which I am writing here before they slip my mind again. I do not remember the dates for them but still they are as amusing as they can be :

He's such a tease!
He truly is! Just a few days ago I asked him "Mumma paaru hai na?" He nodded his head. My next question was "Mumma kitnee paru hai? Thodi ya bahut saari?" He had such a naughty smile on his face and after thinking for a while he kept his thumb and the pointer half an inch away from each other said "Itnee!" And started to giggle which basically meant he understood what he was doing and that it was intentional! And when I made a sad face, he came to me quickly and gave me a tight hug and then opened his arms wide and said "Itnee paaru hai!" and hugged me again! It was such a sweeeeeeeeeet moment for me!

***

I lub (love) you Mumma!
So many times I used to tell Betu, "I love you Betu!" when cuddling with him. However, I never taught him to say it back to me. Suddenly one day he himself responded back by saying "I lub (love) you Mumma!" I was so shocked, happy and got so emotional hearing him say that! That moment will always be etched in my mind. It is too precious for any mother to forget.

***

"Very good Mumma!"
Isn't it so nice to hear such compliments from your children? It surely makes my day! One thing for which he always says this to me whenever I go to pick him from his daycare is when he sees I've come in my white Maruti 800. So when I go inside the premises, he will ask me "Aap white waali car laye ho?" And when I respond in affirmation (which always is since I only drive that car.). And when he will see the car himself out comes the compliment "Very good mumma!". You will think "why is that?".

This is why. Since my Dad was travelling to US since march, he had left his Maruti Swift with us. And DH used to use it quiet often. In the beginning he used to love the big car and insist on going anywhere in that car ONLY. But later he started insisting on using our white Maruti 800 saying "White waali mein jaana hai!". But after some coaxing and cajoling he would agree. We realised much later why he started to prefer the small Maruti 800 compared to much spacious Swift.

B e c a u s e....his visibility was hampered in Swift as the windows were higher and the seats were more deep! But in Maruti 800 he could easily see things outside!

Aren't the kids these days way to bright for us!!!??

***

Betu has an alibi for all his deeds..or shall I call them misdeeds!?!
You bet! Whenever he does something wrong and when you ask him "Yeh aapne kiya?" he would promptly respond back saying "Nahi. Monkey ne kiya!". :P So my boy who was just about 2.5 yrs young has had a alibi to cover up all his misdeeds!

His brain works too much for us to handle. It actually started when we were visiting his Dadu-Dadi in Jaipur last year(2006) sometime around October. Sometimes a group of monkeys would come and break the earthen pots for plants outside the house. Once he saw one broken pot and ...

Betu : Yeh kisne kiya? Aapne toda?"

Me : "Nahi. Monkey ne kiya!"

Betu : "Monkey kahan hain?"

Me : " Woh chala gaya!"

Betu : "Moneky badmashi karta hai?"

Me : "Haan.."

That was end of our conversation then. For me it was the end. But it had more impact on his mind than I could have ever imagined. Few hours later, he opened the kitchen drawer when none of us were around and opened one of the masala dabbis (bloxes) and spilled them in the drawer. And when I saw what he had done and asked him about it, he promptly replied "Monkey ne kiya!" And on questioning him ki "Monkey nahi aa sakta yahan! Aapne kiya hai!", he again had an answer for that "Monkey bammashi (badmashi) karke bhaag gaya!". I was left totally speechless hearing his responses! When I narrated this story to his Dadu-Dadi, the couldn't help laughing!

Crying, stubborn and a defiant child!

Till now I've been all the time posting about how good, adorable and lovely child he is. But that's just one part of the story. He can be as adorable as he can get and at the same time as badmash, as uncontrollable and stubborn too!

Recently he's got this habit of crying at the drop of the hat! For reason or no reason. And it kind of irritates me and DH both. When you scold him, he will actually pay no attention to what we are telling him but will start crying.

Even if we try to reason with him that what he was dong was wrong without reprimanding him in any manner whatsoever, he would still start crying.

Its so irritating when he cries at anytime and every time. Whether you are scolding him or just talking to him. He just knows that crying out will get him things the way he wants. But before you start thinking that we give in whenever he starts crying, NO..we don't. There are times when we will let him cry for 10-15 mins and then he will come and cuddle with us. Once he is quiet and we will talk to him about what he did wrong, he will nod his head and will say not to do again.

But again the same thing will start on something or the other. I really don't know where are we going wrong and what should we do to stop this behaviour.

In the mornings we literally have to drag him to take his bath so crying starts. Once in the bath, crying stops. When time comes to get out of the bath, crying starts. First he doesn't want to take bath and then he doesn't want to come out! This is just one example that I'm writing about here. It gets maddening at times!

If you scold him, he will come back to us asking "Aapne mujhe kyun daanta?" When you reason with him, he doesn't listen. When he does something wrong I usually tell him to "Hold your ears and stand in the corner." Now he's picked up this line and when he gets angry because we are not doing things as he would want us to, we get to hear back these lines on us. "Hold your ears! Stand in the corner!"

There have been few time long ago when he would trouble me while I would be driving I would tell him that "I will put him out of the car!" But later I realised it wasn't a great idea so stopped saying it. On Sunday out of the blue, he got angry while we were going back home after dropping his Dadu, he goes "Main aapko gaadi se bahar kar doon?"

So all this makes me so confused as to what should we do to control him and what we shouldn't do. Any ideas are truly welcomed!