Moisturizer

 I don’t recall writing this down in the blog but at times, when we have time, I make moisturizer at home using shea butter, jojoba oil, essential oils and beeswax. 

Megha asked if we could make moisturizer at home over the weekend and perhaps glam it up a little bit by adding food coloring (as mine are plain white/ cream colored). 

Cracked me up! Megha darling I should have let you do it…you know for kicks and giggles and see your face after you apply the food-colored-moisturizer :)

You are lucky I love you to the moon and back, I reminded you the tint of food coloring :)

Effects of school

We read books to megha every night before she goes to bed. Yesterday we had read cowboy Woody's book. Usually we kiss the book we read good night before putting it away. This book she didnt want to.

Me: Megha beta, kiss the book good night, I will put it away.

Megha: No momma, woody is a boy, I wont kiss. I dont want to kiss a boy! Ewww

Me: Huh?! Ok. (I did not know what to say). Who told this to you Megha?

Megha: I am telling you Momma.

Me: OK

We certainly did NOT introduce this concept at home. Must be the school thing!

When Megha wanted a pet

After watching one of Baby Einstein episodes, Megha wanted us to buy a puppy for her. Here was the conversation from this morning:

Megha: Mom, shall we buy a puppy?
Me: Maybe when you and Tanish grow up a bit more Megha
Meg: Why not now? I am big, I am 4.
Me: Well, pets are a lot of work and we already have one baby to take care of. Maybe when Tanush also grows up, we will think.
Meg: I will take care of the puppy.
Me: I am sure you will. On the first day of its life. But after that it mostly will be my duty or dads. Dont worry though, for sure we will talk about it when you and Tanush grow up
Meg: Can we at least have a cat
Me: Daddy is allergic to cats
Meg: Mouse?
Me: No
Meg: Fish
Me: Megha how about we bake cupcakes?
Meg: Yay! Cupcakes!

To be fair, she may have taken care of the puppy. 

Baby Einstein fans!

Megha used (still is) to be a big fan of Baby Einstein videos right from when she was very little. The other day when I had put one of the Baby Einstein videos (neighborhood animals to be specific), Tanush immensely enjoyed it. Generally I avoid TV during weekdays when I feed him but when Megha is around, she prefers to watch TV when eating...Here are the two silly kids thoroughly enjoying their video during their meal time...

Because....

Of late, Megha started applying logic to everything she does (much to my delight). Like this evening, she wanted juice box. I have her one and before I could say anything, she tells me, "it's apple juice momma". I was surprised because neither did I tell her what juice it is not did she taste yet. Then I said, "that's right. It indeed is. How did you know?"
She said, " because it has picture of apples on it". My smart baby!!

Happy New Year!

Wishing Megha and everyone reading the blog a very Happy New Year! Megha has grown up so much in this last one year. She talks a marathon now and is the apple of our eyes. Here is something interesting which she had been saying of late. She wants to be a doctor when she grows up.

Here is what she likes in terms of food; And we give her breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, dinner and snack (in that order) everyday.

Height 36 inches and weight 14 kgs.

Loves: 
Pasta (spaghetti with Victoria's marinara sauce; just a little)
Spinach rice
Pancakes and waffles with Nutella smeared on it.
Hot dogs (not the buns though)
Hashbrown
Ripe Pears
Lays chips (yellow classic one's)
Chocolate Milk
Tim Bits
Broccoli

Likes:
Maggie Noodles
Gold fish crackers
Cheese
Rice Pudding
Yogurt
Banana; Apple; Grapes
Uncle Bens Rice
Chicken Noodle soup that Sherry makes

Knows:
Several rhymes
Alphabets (says all; can recognize all capital letters and we are up to J for small letters)
Numbers up to 30 and when in mood up to 50
Days of the week
Colors and shapes
Gayatri Mantra
Brushing her teeth
Potty trained (working on night time and at times poo)

Favourite past-time:
Playing in the park
Looking at her books (loves when we read it to her)
Watching youtube videos (Kinder surprise, rhymes, peppa pig to name a few)
Loves Dora and Bubble guppies and also Disney Junior programs
Craft time with me
Me walking her in her stroller

Not a big fan of:
Nap or sleep time but usually winds down fairly fast with lights down
dark rooms
plain milk or prunes
me brushing her hair (its getting a little better these days)

And oh, usually she is in her PJs at home. Outside, she loves to wear dresses (I let her on special occasions). Otherwise she is normally in her pants and tops (not much jeans though). She loves hats, shades and pretty footwear.

Below is a picture taken 2 days ago at a friends birthday party:

Opposites...

Of late I had been so disturbed that I hardly have any inclination to do anything other than bare-minimum. So, the blogging activity has drastically come down. This evening I was in the train thinking what is the purpose of my life. I know! pretty dark stuff if you ask me. I could not come up with an answer. I guess this is the most priced question which most people are looking for.

I came home from work and after what ever i needed to got done, I sat down with Megha and we read a little. For the last few days we had been going over the opposites and i am proud to announce that she has now successfully learned the meaning of opposites and can correctly say MANY opposite words as of today!

Big-Small
Happy- Sad
Up- Down
Empty - Full
Day- Night

etc

Doctor!

This evening Megha said something very interesting. She said she wants to be a doctor.

She: I want to be a doctor momma.
Me: Oh that's nice. Why?
She: So I can make boo boo's feel better.

Bubble Guppies...

2 days ago while we were watching Bubble Guppies (cartoon), something very interesting happened.
The kid in the cartoon loses his toy (it falls down a cliff); so he says, "Oh no! what should I do! what should I do!".
Megha responded, "go get it". Lol
She sure is growing up fast :)

Small talk which meant so much more than "small"

Yesterday when I went home from work, Megha asked me, "how was your day momma?"

Wow! Where is she learning to form such long and so meaningful questions? She sure is growing up super fast :)

And she also remembers more than I thought she would. Last night before putting her to bed, I told her that we will be going to cottage tomorrow. Then she said," Really momma?!" Lol
She also said, "we will kick the ball. The water was coooold" referring to what happened when we went to the cottage the last time :)

Funny things she says :)

Megha was on phone with her grand-pa wishing him for his birthday. Here is a conversation between Anand Reddiar and Megha:

Anand: Say Happy birthday granda
Megha: Happy birthday!
For something which my dad responded, Anand wanted her to say "wow"
Anand: Say wow...
Megha: (Very softly) Wow
Anand: Say loudly
Megha: Loudly

 

Chatter over the weekend

Has it been already 10 days since I last posted? It feels like just yesterday! Lol
Over the weekend, we had so much fun (Another post to be written after we download the pics). Megha fell sick with cold and cough on Sunday morning which lasted until this evening. But otherwise, we did have lots of fun.

I had been preparing for our big trip to India coming September. Now she says really crazy/cute things like:

"Momma, India is Hungry" (and I say, lets buy chicken noodle soup for India)
"Momma, Broody pushed India" (And I say, oh oh, no pushing Broody)
"Momma, India is in the farm" (I dont know what to say for this).

Making up Rhymes!

Saturday, 26th July 2014. Megha woke up around 7 AM, well rested and happy. By then I had already had my coffee and so, I was all ready to start the weekend with my lil girl. I had a couple of surprises today which reinforces that given an avenue to express themselves, kids thrive with creativity.

As is our weekend tradition, Megha was sitting on the kitchen counter while I was making her breakfast (Scrambled Egg and Cheese). She helped with mixing the eggs for them to be scrambled. I started singing a rhyme for her, "Mary Mary Quite Contrary...."

and then Megha jumped in to sing a song for me.

"Sherry Sherry Quite Contrary
How does your babies grow?
With Milk and Cheese and lots of play
And Belle Bella Bella"

Sherry is her daycare provider and Bella is their little dog :) How cute is that?!

Teaching Small Letters (Alphabets) to Toddlers

Megha loves books and so do I. We have so many books at home for her and she knows a few books by-heart :); We are having a great Sunday.

She can say and can recognize A-Z capital letters. These days I slowly started asking her what particular letters in her story book are so that she will know that words are made out of Alphabets and when we put all the words together, it makes a sentence. I dont know why it didnt occur to me to mention this to her much before. She was totally confused and didnt know what I was asking, even though she can recognize the capital letters.

I started researching a few days ago about this and came to know that many parenting websites recommend to start teaching toddlers with small letters as Capital letters make up for only 5% in any given book. But most of the alphabet books I have have started with capital letters...so confusing!

So, to make the process of teaching small letters fun, I came up with a small craft idea. Hopefully this way of teaching will make the process less "teaching" and more "fun". Lets see how this goes! I think she already knows "a" by now.

Flash Card Method:

Supplies:
Any shapes, I used butterfly foam shapes from Dollar store.
Glue
Glitter

Method: Apply the glue in the shape of an alphabet. Add glue and glitter and let it dry. I drew small figures in the corners (Apple and Ball)

Megha was very excited today. So, she applied the glitter after I applied glue :)

Edit: Its evening now and she can now say the first letters in a word (if they are capital). My smart baby! All thats needed was to show her a few times that a word is formed when we use a bunch of alphabets together :)

Baby Animals Continues!

Over the weekend, Megha and I said our animals over and over again. She loves the animals! Here are some of the things she learned while I tried to recollect the animals myself in at attempt to teach them:

Me: Whats a baby Dog called?
Megha: Baby dog is called a puppy.
Me: Whats a baby Cat called?
Megha: Baby cat is called a kitten.
Me: Whats a baby Horse called?
Megha: Baby horse is called a pony.
Me: Whats a baby Cow called?
Megha: Baby cow is called a calf. (This one Anand taught her amongst other things)
Me: Whats a baby duck called?
Megha: Baby duck is called a duckling (sometimes she forgets this).

We also said what a baby tree is called, baby car, baby bus, baby truck, baby bicycle, baby tree, baby grass etc :) If she doesnt recollect something, she either says its a baby grass or its a baby car :)

Here is a picture taken at the cottage. More pics coming up about cottage!

Here is how our baby animal episode started: http://aboutyouwithyou.blogspot.ca/2014/07/baby-animals.html

Baby Animals

This evening something super nice happened. Megha and I were returning from her daycare and we were waiting for a lady and her puppy to cross the road. We were at the stop sign. Here is the conversation that followed.

Megha: Look momma a big doggy!
Me: Yes Megha, you are right its a dog. But since its a small baby dog, its called a puppy.

Megha: Whats a baby Horse called momma?

Me: A baby horse is called Pony.
Megha: Whats a Baby Bus called momma?
Me: Errrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

Colors, colors everywhere!

There are very few things which Megha doesn't learn in a short period of time. As a matter of fact, there are only 2 things which she didnt pick up as fast as the other things. One of them is differentiating colors. Here is what I had written before: Teaching Colors to Toddlers

Last Saturday (28th June) for the very first time she pointed 4 colors when asked for colors (like red/blue etc)! She progressed from not pointing out any color to pointing out 4 colors perfectly in one single evening! Wow Megha! You go girl!

Just like with differentiating all 4 colors in the same evening, she pointed out all 4 correctly 6 weeks after she differentiated. Here is the picture from which she pointed out:

Cinderella....

Megha loves books. Recently I bought more books for her and one of them is about Cinderella. She loves the book but she cant pronounce Cinderella. This evening when I was reading her the books before her bed time (as part of our bed time routine), she kept asking for "Umbrella". At first I didnt understand what she was saying; I kept saying, its not raining sweety, we dont need an umbrella. But soon I realized she was asking for Cinderella book! :) :)

So sweetly she said, "Umbrella Momma?"..

Old McDonald vs Shah Rukh Khan

This happened on Friday 23rd May, 2014. Megha loves Old McDonald had a farm rhyme. I mean, she really loves it. On Friday evening, we listened to it for maybe at least 50 times and she still wanted to listen to it again! So, the silly-me put on Chammaku Challo video from Ra-One. Here is the conversation that followed:

Megha: Momma! He is not Old McDonald!
Me: I know sweety, his name is Shah Rukh Khan
Megha: He is not singing Old McDonald!
Me: Ya, he is singing Chammaku Challo
Megha: Momma! I want Old McDonald! Old McDonald!!!

So, we watched Old McDonald until she was tired and ready to go to bed! Nothing I did persuaded her to stop asking for Old McDonald :)

Wa-Wa Daiyee?

Megha made us so proud today and I absolutely must log this date down before I forget all about it. Anand was coughing a bit; Megha said, "wa wa Dayiee?" First time asking us this, apart from her usual "you ok daiyee" or "you OK momma"

She sure is growing up fast and making me so proud in the process.