How will we know if it's a boy or a girl?

That's the question S asked me first thing this morning. A very valid question given we have decided not to find out the gender of our baby.

But what do I tell her???

Are you sure you want to leave me at grandma's?

Usually when I want S to listen to me or to follow an instruction, invariably I find myself telling her that I will take some privilege away or threaten her with dire consequences.

I was surprised by how smartly she turned the tables on me this morning. S has been running a light temperature since the last few days, so when we decided to head out to do some Diwali shopping, we decided to leave her at her grandma's place since we also wanted to take our helper along to help out. S wasn't too happy with this situation. She started insisting that she wanted to come along too. I tried explaining to her many times that we weren't taking her because she wasn't well and didn't want her to get more sick. But none of this seemed to register. The pleading continued for a while.

Suddenly she changed tack and told me that if I left her at grandma's she would watch a lot of TV, implying that it wasn't something I would like and hence I should reconsider my decision. Tv watching at grandma's is usually uncontrolled and it's a bone of contention between my mom and me, which she is well aware of. I replied that I didn't care and she was definitely going to grandma's.

But it didn't end there. Her next words were - "I will watch so much tv and eat candy"! When I replied that I didn't care, she retorted, "I will eat 2 candies, and 3 and 4! How about that"? All this with a wicked twinkle in her eye. She knew all the things I didn't like that happened at grandma's and was throwing them in my face!

I was pretty impressed that she knew which things would bother me the most and was using them effectively. Very smart, don't you think?

Mama is laughing at me

It was a deja-vu moment. S was playacting and I found the incident vastly amusing and couldn't stop myself from laughing. She got upset and started howling seriously.
Apparently I had hurt her feelings by laughing at her.

Rewind 28 years. Similar set up. My mom and brother were playing some game and ignoring me. My protests and attempts to capture their attention all met with amusement and laughter. The laughter further angered me and in true Hindi film style I decided I would commit suicide and that would get their attention.

I marched smartly in to the kitchen and picked up a long sharp knife and dramatically stretched out my small arm and aimed the knife at my tummy. My mom who had decided to take me seriously after all, followed and calmed me down. She got me to give up the knife. I felt I had achieved success, I had her full attention. Before I knew it I received the loudest, tightest slap from her and in a really scary voice she warned me never to try anything stupid like that again. I was shattered, even my little drama hadn't managed to get me some affection. I went to my dad and sobbed my heart out.

I was thoroughly ashamed of myself and lived in constant dread that mom would share this incident with everyone. I took to eavesdropping whenever she was on the phone or she was meeting someone. This, of course, she found even more amusing.

It was only when I was in my late teens that I was able to see the funny side of things and it remains a vastly entertaining story!

Hearing S lament that "Mama is laughing at me", took me back to my own childhood and that day more than 28 years ago :). She is my daughter after all!

Of dinosaurs and princesses

S is going through her girliest phase ever and this is driving DD nuts, to put it politely. He wants her to think about counting, spelling and stamp collections and all she enjoys is makeup, princess games and nail art!

Take for example this lunchtime conversation. S was busy playing with these cut outs from her dinosaur book as she ate her lunch and decided that naming the dinosaurs would be fun. So, one was christened Sophie and the other was named Rose.

But this was too much for DD to swallow and in exasperation he said, "S, that is a T-Rex and the other one is a brontosaurus!"

To which Squiggles' look of exasperation was worth capturing, "Papa, they need to have a name". And she continued with this irritating naming convention :) which bugged DD no end.

He tried again for a few more times before admitting defeat!

'Win win' strategy

Every time we go on holiday DD and I take turns going to the spa. When it's my turn to stay back with Squiggles I usually take her to the pool or play some games. Unsurprisingly, when it's DD's turn, he let's her watch tv, in particular Hi-5, which is her favorite tv show.

This time when we returned home, one weekend, Squiggles had this suggestion for what we should do over the weekend.

"Mama, if you go to the spa, I can watch Hi-5. Right."

And let it be stated that that was a statement and not a question!

And a bloody good one!

The story of Ganesha

Well, the latest episode from Ms. Drama Queen was on Ganesh Chaturthi. For a change I decided that we would try to celebrate the festival at home so that S would know what the meaning of this festival was.

Invariably, we all woke up late and were too lazy too shower. I decided to tell S the story of how Ganeshji came about having an elephant head. Suffice to say, that my story telling was so good, that she thought that the elephant had cut off the baby's head and she insisted that we take her to the temple to see the headless baby!

She fell asleep in the afternoon and so we couldn't take her to the temple but the next day she just wouldn't leave the topic. I even managed to get her into a pretty lehenga for the occasion. Her cousin's influence is obvious though. She came to our room to show herself off and she had one hand on one side of her hip and she was shaking her hips on the other side :). It was so cute. She even agreed to wear bangles and payal and a dupatta. Before you ask, I'm not sure if we took a pic or not.

We landed in the mandir and were there for barely a minute when they started some loud singing which got her upset :(. It stopped just as were about to leave. And the first question was 'where is the baby elephant'.
I'm still struggling to get the story right in her head but I think I may have to give up.

Moral of the story - The elephant cut the baby's head but S's head is safe because she is no longer a baby!

It's all about pink

I didn't realize when pink became an obsession with S. I've always tried to get her neutral colours when I buy her clothes or pick up toys. And I am hideously bored with the colour pink. So I've tried to influence her away from pink subtly through my choice of colours. It's but obvious that someone decided to teach me a lesson about not being able to control everything!

Her love of pink can only be termed an obsession! When we ask her what she wants for her birthday (which is coming up soon), she says 'pink'. Not pink toys, not pink clothes but just 'pink'.

She wants a pink party for her 3rd birthday. So the mother in me has overcome my dislike of this ubiquitous colour and decided to grant her her wish. Though I have to admit I'm hoping that an overdose of pink will cure her of it. But I'm sure my hopes will be dashed!

Coming to her wish for a pink party, I'm getting her a princess bouncy castle which is not all pink but lilac and pink. It's the most girly bouncy castle they have. There will be pink and purple balloons. The table cloths, cutlery and crockery will all be pink. DD has made a pink donkey for the pin the tail game. We've painted alphabets which spell out her name and we are going to put them outdoors and it's pink and purple. The cake is a bright candy pink, an eyesore but pink :). I just realized she doesn't really have pink party dress or shoes so we're going to have to rectify that on Friday before the party. And we have to buy her a pink birthday present which I'm thinking of taking her to the toy store and letting her choose.

I have to admit one thing before I end *sheepish*. Whenever everyone asks me what she's into and what she would like for her birthday I don't tell them the truth. If I tell everyone that she has a pink obsession then all her presents will be pink. In any case it's hard to find things for girls which are not pink. And one last thing, I tell them she's into books and puzzles and don't mention she likes princess. She will get enough pink girly presents as it is so don't make me feel guilty ok?