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 :)

Activities for 2 to 3 Year Old Toddlers

Kids around this age (generally) love stickers, activities and anything which is creative. I realized Megha loves stickers around Halloween time last time (almost at age 2) and since then, there is no stopping us. We try to do at least 1 craft a week, apart from what she makes at the daycare.

When A is working, usually megha and I go to Walmart for our weekly grocery shopping on Saturday mornings. After her nap followed by lunch, we did the below things in the past few months, starting with most recent one:

By the way, it doest include what I had shared as part of "Megha's Journey".

Yesterday (Sunday) afternoon: Edible Flower Arrangement
I drew a small pot in an A4 size paper and made a flower shape using glue. I started this in the hopes that I can show her a few textures, colors of different lentils/seeds and their names. She also smelled the coriander.

Things used are Spaghetti noodles for stems, split pea lentil, sunflower seeds, coriander seeds and Orange lentils. I tried to teach her the names but mostly she played around, randomly pouring the lentils/seeds on glue.
Picture 1:

Picture 2:

Final version:

Picture 3: After the glue dried, I pasted this paper on the wall in our hallway.

Foam Shapes and Stickers:
As mentioned before, Megha loves stickers. I bought some flowers, sticky and glittery butterflies. In the last few weeks, I also bought sticky foam alphabets and numbers. She made me so proud when she identified all (well, most) alphabets and all the numbers from 1-10!
We also used glue and glitter to make lovely flowers. This is on the hallway wall. I used this for Pongal decorations (April). I started in early april and keep adding new ones and remove the old one's. As of today, these 4 are still on the wall.

Bubbles!
Have you ever come across a toddler who doesnt like bubbles? I haven't! Anand bought this for megha a couple of weeks ago and since that day, almost every evening we 'must' play with it! Nice past-time for the whole family. Megha absolutely loves it when we three play together. This picture was taken yesterday evening. Remember, kids need supervision when playing with bubbles.

Magic Tree!
How beautiful is the age when we believe in fairies, magic and and and Santa! Here Megha made her very own magic tree. It has everything a fairy land will need. Beautiful trees, fire flies, glittery mushrooms, flowers, grass etc. She made a 3D version by sticking one sticker on top of the other! Loved it :)

Close up:

 You are my Sunshine: This craft is inspired by one of our favorite rhymes, "You are my sunshine, My only sunshine"
Here, I used an unused mirror and child-safe water color. Using your finger, gently apply the yellow water color on one tiny feet. While doing so, you may tickle if you want. I did and Megha loved it :) we had so much fun.
Gently place one leg on the mirror. turn the mirror slightly and paste the impression of the feet again. Re-apply the yellow color so that it doesnt fade. Repeat the process until the sun is full :)

Here is our Wall of Fame: After all the crafts we do, our wall is getting full. Here is the pic taken right now. Some of it is from the daycare too.

Love is in the air...!

There is so much love in the air that we can almost touch it :)

Your turn Dayeee!

Pigs in a Blanket recipe

Who doesnt love hot-dogs?! I love them and so does Megha. We also bought some veggies hot-dogs. In order to make it more interesting for Megha, I made Pigs in a Blanket and she LOVED it! Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:
Crescent Dough: 1 portion
Hot-dogs: 3 (regular or veggie)

Method:
Preheat the oven to 375 D F. Dust surface of the kitchen counter with flour. Roll out one triangle from the crescent pack (A standard pack contains enough to make 4 croissants). Cut one big triangle into 6 small thin triangles and keep aside. Slice the hot-dogs into 2 pieces. Place the hot dogs into the crescent and roll ensuring the end of the triangle stays on top.

Bake in the pre-heated oven for 12 minutes. Enjoy!

Homemade Strawberry and Apple Popsicle/smoothie for Toddlers

Megha loves Popsicle's and she asks me for it almost every day. Here is recipe# 2 for yummy homemade Popsicle.

Ingredients:
Apple: pealed and cubed, 1 (I used Gala, the sweet one)
Strawberries: 3, sliced
Milk: 1/2 cup
Yogurt: Baby yogurt (Optional)

Method: Blend everything together until you get the smoothie and pour in the Popsicle moulds! That's it!
I used yogurt because Megha loves the taste. You can completely skip it if your loved one doesnt like the taste. 

Guilty mom

Sometimes I feel that being a mom is so hard. For example, I hate leaving her at the daycare early in the morning and I feel guilty about it all day. Last year when she first started daycare at 13-14 months, I thought this feeling will go away, I thought I will feel less guilty and that it will get better. But none of that happened. With certainty I can say, I still feel as guilty about leaving her at the daycare as I was on day one. What happened was that I got used to having guilty-feelings, so it doesn't hurt as much (is that what is called healing?). I guess this happens with every mom, irrespective of where they work (I love working...but still).
I hate waking her up; a child should be left alone until he/she wakes up all by herself (unless of course she is starting school). So, when Anand is home, I absolutely love it...she gets to sleep in.
Written yesterday/posted today.
Same thing last week; Anand and I were dropping her off at the daycare at 6:15 AM. Usually one or the other drop her off but that day was an exception. She thought we were all going together. Maybe I should have just let her be until we reached the daycare. I just blurted out that we are still going to daycare (so that she doesnt get disappointed and start crying when she sees it all of a sudden). her face immediately fell :(
The big mouth that i have?! While I know my intentions were right, it ended up being sad for me the whole day! I literally thought about it ALL day and started feeling better only after I hugged her in the evening.

This evening:
My megha has curly hair. I mean REALLY curly hair and I need to brush it every day so that there are no knots. She hates it when I brush her hair, even though I do it gently. This evening when I was brushing her hair, she didnt want me to. I didnt brush last night too as she had cold. So I 'had' to do it today. So, I persisted. Maybe it hurt? She started wailing :( :( Oh baby...I wish you never have to cry!

Enough of sad stories...here is my wild and dandelion amidst the real dandelions :); taken 2 days ago at the park overlooking our home.

Isnt she adorable?

Best ever Selfie!

You think only celebrities get to take selfies? no no no no! we can too! This was taken 2 weeks ago (beginning of May)...Megha loves to click and here, we clicked together. Looking happy, feeling loved.