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

Halloween 2014

Before the birthday and Christmas arrives, I thought its high time I write about Halloween. Finally I got a chance to put some pictures together. This year Megha was Hello Kitty :)
Initially she wanted to be a witch (I dont even know where she picked that word from; probably daycare). Here is one taken around Halloween time, one of my favorite pictures.

I took her to Walmart and showed her all the costumes available (including the witch costumes). She picked Hello Kitty :)

Anand carved a couple pumpkins.

For a first time, he did an excellent job!

He also baked a pumpkin pie! ALL from the scratch! It was yum yum yummy! Megha ate so much of it. I wonder when he would make it again.

Here are some treat-bags that we made for the kids at the daycare. It includes some treats, a pencil/eraser and a small foam pumpkin.

The house beside the daycare was decorated for Halloween and here is one picture. When I go pick her up in the evenings, she used to say "Its very spooky out there".

We went out to quite a few houses for Trick or Treat. She accumulated so much candy. Here she is sorting through them.

When the plant gets a snack...

I have a little Orchid plant. I have had this for at least 3 years now. I always left it out of Megha's reach but more recently, I left it within her reach. So, last week when it was her snack time, she felt that the little plant was also hungry. So she fed it some potato wedges :)

Luckily I stopped her from giving it orange juice :)

Pancake art for Toddlers

Thanks to my new kitchen gadget, waffle maker, I started making waffles from the scratch at home. But her favorite still remains the pancakes.
I tried to make it a bit more interesting :) It has some nutella (she doesnt like maple syrup), couple of pieces of banana...you get it :) Sorry, unable to rotate it for some reason!

Below is Anands hashbrown-hotdog lunch for her that she loves :)

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.

Momma's little Helper

Megha loves helping me (and Anand) since the time she turned one. The most interesting part is, the learning that happens when she is ‘playing’ this way. I have told enough number of times how she sits on the kitchen counter and watchs me cook. These days we took one step forward and I give her a measuring cup and guide her how much flour we need and she measures it before dispensing it in the bowl. Last weekend we made pancakes and she was just so awesome. Apart from mixing the batter just perfectly, she poured pan cakes with a ladle into the griddle (with close supervision of course) and with some help, she also flipped over the pancakes for it to cook on the other side!
The best part of all, since she made these pancakes, she ate all 2 of them! That never happened before.

Here is the recipe, a simple traditional one. I always follow this:

 http://allrecipes.com/recipe/good-old-fashioned-pancakes/

We also made brownies. She mixed all the dry ingredients. I didn’t even have to do anything! I love these weekend mornings when we hang out in the kitchen. It not only gives us the freedom to do things at our own pace, it also helps us to learn more about food, bond with each other and celebrate the success of the outcome (though we dont fret if something doesnt come out the way we had planned). Warm home, the love, laughter, the clatter of the ladles, the aromas of the still-baking-cake (any food) in the oven and the comforting thought that in the end there will be food to eat is something every child on this earth should be entitled for.

So, it’s only fitting that she has an apron of her own. Here she is in her new apron!

Here she is helping me pick mint leaves off the stalks. When she is doing that, we went through the colors, numbers (we counted leaves), tasted the mint leaf, smelled it and declared that we love mint.

When learning is made fun, it is accepted and understood much more easily. 

Potty Training: Done!

Megha reached a BIG milestone today. No accidents at all when it came to pee and poo today! Its official! Megha is now potty trained!

We had started potty training her a while ago, though it was only a passive attempt. Its only during the last 2 weekends that I committed to leaving Megha diaper free at home. I made sure the potty is where she can see, thats it. She went on Sunday 23rd Nov 2014 for the first time and today, Nov 26th, she is completely potty trained. After going poo in the potty, she got a special treat at the daycare, cookie!

At home, she gets stickers, she gets to blow a candle and small candy.

Here is her note from the daycare, all decorated!