It is called Whining?

I think kids started knowing the magic of Whining in early years and there in no one needed to tell them what it is. They know how to change a "No" to "Yes". Thamizhini is no different and these days what ever she wants, she asks with a crying whining voice. She is not really ready to understand the difference between asking in a good / regular mood and crying mood.

We are very sure that we are not making her to whine for everything. We pay full attention to her before she starts whining and sometimes she might not understand what the word "No" means and why we say so. However, we make our house child safe, still some of dangerous things would be reachable for them, like electric plug points, shoes, back side of TV, fridge and mosquito killer bats. 

I could still remember that she was not at all touching those things, even if she tries, the one word "NO" was enough for her to control. But later if any one at home allow her to do that same naughty thing, then she will not be ready to listen others. And that is where whining starts, because If me or Nalin yell at her for her "Don't touch" things. This is how going on these days, One say No, the other says Yes and Thamizhini takes advantage of her choices.

The Real Perfectionist

Thamizhini likes to draw with her "Pink Magnetic Writing Slate Board" always. Sometimes she ask every one at home to draw something. And even we like to do some drawing, as it is very easy to use and very much easier to erase it. :-)

Check out the below video, how Thamizhini uses it. She knows where to keep the pen and how to use the eraser. My real perfectionist.

Love of Dance

I could still remember that when Thamizhini was three months old, she was paying full attention to sound / noise / music, whatever. Also her legs move very faster to the beats and it is totally depends on the sound. Thamizhni's love of music and dance have been improved and anytime she hears music, she started dancing from where she is standing.

Checkout the video for her performance. Lately she has begun dancing to every bit of music she hears, and tries to do same way how hero / heroins are dancing on TV. Sometimes she will break out into dance without any music too!  My sweet pie loves to dance and it is so adorable to watch it :-)

Who is Lion?

Check out the below video to know who is Lion? There are two parts, good and bad!

Thamizhini's most attracted and interested book is Animals & Birds, she likes to see the picture and used to ask about the animal / birds. And we would say her like, this is Dog and barks like "Bow Bow", this is Cow and makes "Mmmmaaaaaaaaaaaa" and so on. Likewise her Dad had told, "This is Lion" and told how it makes sound. I don't know how to write that sound, but I'm sure you would have heard from the video.  Also her Dad had told that, "This is Appa" and he used to ask her, "Appa Yaaru" and my sweetie points out the Lion picture and says "Lion... Singam". Before she started speaking she used to point out picture, but now as she could speak, she tells always "Appa Singam" and "Athu Lion, Appa", even though there is no book to point out. I'm sure she is used to for that question. And as you all know, there is no doubt that this is the good part!

Now coming to opposite side of the first part: While explaining the animals and their sounds, he came across "Monkey (orangutan)" and told "This is Amma". And ofcourse she is attached to it. Whenever the monkey page comes she points out orangutan and says "Amma... Amma..." :-( Nalin feels bad that he could not capture this funny moment. :-D

Mimicry: Updated

My talking toddler is too much talkative and she remembers what ever we say to her. She knows how dog barks, how crow and cow make sound and literally, she knows what she want and she can ask for that. Check out the video and you will know better.

We tried our level best to capture this! These days her legs are not standing in a place, always running here and there. As Nalin put her in crib, she was not able run. He captured it nicely!

Is it really a big thing?

This cute little pie is sixteen months old and I'm still not realizing how fast time run! I still remember the day she born and still I could feel the softness of her skin like rose petals. I remember her first months face, how it looked, but later I really don't get how she was, she was then changing, changing and changing... Overall height and weight changed, face changed and her little fingers have grown to few cms... :-)

Ammaa.....

When I think about nursing, it is an intimate feeling that fosters a strong bond between me and my daughter and I find it difficult to let that go. YES, Of course, even though I wanted to wean, yet still feel uneasy about it, may be kinda of guiltiness. But night waking for almost sixteen months would come to an end.

Hmm... Amma wants to break it.... But I'm not ready!!!

I wanted to register one thing here in high tone and VERY seriously. I wanted to fulfill the needs of my daughter ahead of what OTHER people might think. Everybody (mainly OLD ones) feels that feeding a baby more than 11 months is a sin. They simply tell me the reason as that it would be tough to make the baby wean once baby start realizing what happens with her mother. I felt tough to continue nursing, when every one else in the family frowns on my choice.

No one can come in between me and Amma!

But as I said earlier I felt it is more important to fulfill my baby's needs and moreover I wanted to build a stronger bond between me and my baby. That is the only time we spent together without anyone's interruptions. I know each and every inch of her body, even I could find any tiny marks on her. I feel that is the time for only mother and baby.

Her Happiness on her smile...

When coming to the moment of weaning, I prepared very well and my daughter seems not much interested in feeding, but wanted to feel my closeness. I gradually decreased the counts and it was only bed time I fed her and she started getting the habit of  waking up in the midnight and asking for "B". I don't know either it is "B" or "Bee". She has named like this for the nursing process. :-) I have to tell how Thamizhini named like this. I used to have pillow for support when I nurse her. And that pillow has nice flower design on it. Thamizhini is always fond of flowers and she initially called "Poovi" for Poo. Later it became a habit for Thamizhini to get that pillow for feeding and she says "Poovi".  If Nalin tells Thamizhini to go and have "ungaa", she first go and gets that pillow, then comes to me by saying, "Amma Poovi".  And somehow that Poovi turned in to B as short.

Yeah!I named it!

Back to story, She wakes up and simply lies down and would be counting the stars on the sky. And sometimes she simply will not sleep for couple of hours and asking me to get up and play with her. After all these kinda disturbance, I thought, it would be better to stop feeding, so that she would get full stretch of sleep in the night and even me too!

Amma feels bad that I'm not letting her to sleep :-(

To start the process of weaning, I called my mother from native for help. I thought my husband cannot be of much help in this. I have got some experts (??? yeah, my friends) help on this. They told me that it is just when baby sees me, she may get remained of  feeding. As we do co sleeping, I thought it would be tough if  she wake up in the night. So I make myself hid in the bed room and we put her in Thuli which is in hall, to make her sleep and this was continued for a week. Yes, she cried much when she got up in the middle of night and literally she was searching for me in the house. I felt really bad. :-(

Amma, I'm sad and I need you always.

And we also had a plan to go for a relative's marriage in our native. I would say that helped a lot, becoz' in the new environment, she totally forgot about nursing. Sometimes I used to say her that  "B" was stolen by Kakka when she asks me about it. It took totally of two weeks to wean from me and I would say that first five days were tough. The remaining days left unknowingly as we were in our native and even Thamizhini did not get any clue about nursing. I was extremely happy that I passed another big mile stone in parenting.

We are done!

Do you think that it is all over? Nah... We came back from native on a fine day morning and as it was early morning, we thought of sleeping for some time and we all were sleeping on the bed. Me, Thamizhini and my hubby. Around eight in the morning she got up and she was waking me like this "Amma... B, Amma Bee Bee..... and pillow in her hand" :-O

Eppuudiiiiiii

I was totally shocked and did not know what to do. I woke nalin up and told him to take Thamizhini out to show two helicopters.  Yes, there were two helicopters flying on the sky. I have known that nothing will work out, except helicopters, since she was bored of Kakka, Pura and all! Somehow she forgot about "B" and started playing. 

Grr.. All are cheating me....

After thinking for a whole day, I came to know that Thamizhini is fond of B, gets reminded about nursing by seeing the pillow and not by seeing ME. :-D Great Insult.. Grrr.... Hmm... so, on that day night I simply hid all the pillows, (yes, not only hers! I tried this some time back. If i hid her pillow, she gets other pillow and comes to me :P) and we slept without having pillow.

At last I forgot everything and sleeping nicely!

And to my surprise, she did not get up in the middle of night and we continued this setup for one more week. Even sometimes she somehow gets reminded about B and asks me. I started telling that "B Kakka thookitu poyiduchu", I hope she was  satisfied with the answer as there were no pillows on the bed.

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17th Month

My little darling is seventeen months old and I'm happy that my little one is growing up with lots of activities. Bringing up a child is one of the most difficult responsibilities in parenting. And I'm sure all parents must have crossed this line.  We always think about our kids and have lots and lots (or loads) plans to bring up them and most important in the list is, discipline. As Thamizhini is nearing 1.5 years, I'm sure she knew some of things that what she can do and what she can't. She hears not only the words (mainly "NO") I say, but I'm sure the tone of my voice. She reacts to it, but most of times, she makes me to laugh.  :P

Amma, Trust me, I will not repeat it!

Children are like wet clay, we can mold them in any shape and they learn everything by seeing and absorb everything around them. Thamizhini is no different and she tries to mimic what elders do, either good or bad! Generally it is parents responsibility that how we insist values to them and I make sure that I don't miss this in parenting. But sometimes as I said earlier, she makes us smile by seeing her naughtiness, but may be after seeing repeatedly, we get irritated and of course, there is no use of yelling her at that time!

Hey Anna!!!

And I have to make a note that this was an important month to me in parenting. Yes! I have successfully weaned her from feeding. I would say that I was feeling guilty about wanting to wean, but my cutie is not very serious on the business but wanted my nearness. The process took a week for me, and end of the week, we had traveled to our native, so she totally forgot about it in the new environment. Yeah! An important milestone for my baby and I'm happy that she passed this too!

I don't need amma, I can standalone!!

Her understanding ability is going high, so we have to consider her while talking. Also she talks nicely and started telling what she wants not only her toys or food! And these days, her usual word is "Ammatte"  meaning that she wants to go to Amma. And these days she asks us by saying "Kuva Kuva Vaathu", "Ala Ala" (means Nila Nila, and I love to see her hands action to call Nila), 'Kaakka paattu" and "Anna Paattu" (this is a song "veyilodu vilayadi" from Veyil movie). More interesting thing is that  she does not know how to ask for the next song, so she would ask "Appa ithu vena" meaning that "I don't want this". But she will not say what she want next! I would be extremely happy for her Daddy by thinking that bad time started for him!

Howz my outfit? All matching.. matching...!!!

We had been to native for our cousin's marriage and I hope now, Thamizhini would remember everyone in native and whatever she had seen there. She walks around all day with her head in the clouds, because she saw many dogs, cows and buffalo. Her Appuchi was astonished by seeing her mimicry and even me. She mimicked by hearing a buffalo sound as it is. Trust me, no different.

Chitiiiiiiiiiiiiii.... (I'm very sure that she did not see Chiti serial but still she got it in that way!!!)

As I said earlier, her grasping power is going high and she remembers if we tell something to her. Her mama has brought Ball house / tent from Ireland and she knows the colors of the balls. We were simply telling her like "Its blue ball, pink ball, yellow and green ball by showing balls whenever she was playing. So now she knows about the colors not only from balls, even she identifies the colors of her toys.

I could see her changes, month by month and I'm sure she is on the right path. Even though she is adamant on somethings, she is quite good on doing her own things, only thing we have to let her to do that. But as she is supported with her grandparents, she enjoys lot of naughty things.

2nd Mottai

Going to native is becoming tough and we just grab a reason to go and sometimes not to go. We had one of my close relatives marriage on this month end. We started from here on the Friday night and planned to return on Thursday morning. Marriage was planned on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Naanga koviliku vandhirkom.

As we were going to stay there for a week, I thought of doing 2nd mottai for Thamizhini on our temple. 

Appa, Enaku mottai- ah?

We did second mundan ceremony on 27th Sunday. The temple was nearby from our house, so we did not feel any trouble Thamizhini to get up and reach temple in time. Thamizhini did not know what was going there, but once I took off her cloth, she started crying. Her mama was ready, we placed her on his lap and started the process of shaving. Check out the video to know how she cried. :-D

But once shaving is done, her cry also came to an end. She took bath nicely and was enjoying the environment. She wore a beautiful dress after the mottai and enjoyed the Sweet Pongal given in temple.

At last, Amma is relieved!

Check out the below video to know how she dressed and comfortable after mottai.

What am I doing all time at home? - Part III

For Part I and Part II

Yeah! It is me again :-) Mom is too lazy to write and publish my activities. So I have taken in charge for this post! Like older posts, in this too, I'm going to write how I pass time at home. I have some videos to show and I'm sure you are going to enjoy those videos and of course you will feel sad for my mom :-D

I'm not going to Sleep!

That particular day, Amma was not well, so had gone to hospital and took injection too and she was in antibiotics. You can realize from her voice. Because of that I was not able to play with her much. I was waiting for her to sit idle and once she sat, look at the video what I was doing to her. :-)

Circus... I'm sitting on the Ball!!!

Check out the second clip of the video and see where I'm sitting! Yes. If it is missed then I'm sure I will be on the floor. But what is wrong in trying hard games? :P

 Whenever I get bored, I used to go to the Window and start talking to Kakka. Yes, It is Kakka only, Amma says that is pigeon, but as I'm not able to pronounce that, it is kakka for me. :P Check out the video how I talk to them and how I call them for food! And second clip shows that how tough it is to make me sleep. Appa is begging me to go to bed :-D

The big problem for Amma  these days is putting me to sleep. I don't know why, but I'm not getting sleep! If I tell this to Amma, she is getting angry on me :-( But once I feel sleepy, I will cry like anything as I don't know how to tell that I feel sleepy. Look at the below photo, how I sleep on her. She was in to deep sleep and me too! 

This is how I sleep!!! Amma cannot escape from me!!!

Most of the time I do naughty things and make Amma angry. This is the one and only task I have as of now. Check out the below video, how I irritate Amma and then instead Amma getting angry how I get angry on her :D

Ala Ala Odi...

Thamizhini is fond of below videos and these days she is not sleeping without them! She likes "Nila Nila Odi Va" and "Kiya Kiya Kuruvi" much! Her Daddy simply started showing these videos in Laptop and this has become her routine these days! She just goes to the System and asks for it like Amma, Kuva Kuva for all the Rhymes and some times she asks Amma, "Ala Ala Odi Odi" for NilaNila. Check out the below videos that how she enjoys seeing them and She is too much excited too to see them.

Check out this one how her face turns when the Bird cries. Also she is too much frighten for Thunder sounds and we take this opportunity to make her sleep. :P

I like the way how she calls her Daddy! She started calling with his name "Baalji" and some times "Baaji Pa"! Love to hear her again and again. :-)

16th Month

This cute little pie is sixteen months old and I'm still not realizing how fast time run! I'm really happy that she calls me Amma, finally my little one learnt that one. So what else, these days always Amma Amma Amma.. She calls me for no reason. Even though I'm bit annoyed, I feel happy to hear her chanting. :P A big full stop for calling Appa all the time. :D And not only this, she calls everyone and ask what she needs. The famous sentence these days is "Aayaa Paal" (means Granny, Milk) :P

I can eat myself!

Also these days she likes to feed herself! Before whenever I feed food, she will cry and try to get the spoon from me, but that is for playing with the spoon. But these days, she gets spoon from me and she only takes little bit of food in the spoon and eats herself. Growing up......!!!

See, how I'm holding this ball!

I was surprised to see her with three balls in her hand. They were small balls, but still she holds all three in one hand. She watched how we hold them and she did the same. It was really a amazing scene to see her with three balls in one hand and more over, we used to get laugh by seeing her when she tried to hold them without leaving even one of the balls to ground.

Play time with Appa... Once in a Blue Moon!!!

We use to show Thamizhini to the mirror after she dressed up in the morning. She likes to see herself and I often wonder what this little one might be thinking by seeing the image on the mirror. So now it is routine habit and whenever she dressed up, she herself go to mirror and sees herself.

Hey! How my cap and booties look?

As I said earlier posts, she likes to read her book now and then. She always roam here and there and finally settle down with a book in hand which is right under the TV table. She knows almost all of her book names and if we say names, she get it to us. So this was very useful for us to ask some of the things which we need. She likes to see the "Activity book" and from that only she learnt how to kick the ball. She says like, smiling, eating mammu, running, bathing by seeing the photos.

I'm busy in reading....!!!

Reading book is a nicest thing for her and likes to drop down all the books from shelf but never liked to arrange it back in the place. I must admit one thing here, this is only for her books, toys and her own things. If we ask her to place the remote in its place, she does that, ask for keeping the water bottle in place, she does that and ask for keeping the mobile on table, she does that. Basically she likes to lend a hand for our tasks. But when we say get that book and arrange it, No, she never does that. :-(

I Like to mess up, but I never like to clean it up!

Now she is able to play see-saw without our help. She holds the bar tightly and sits properly for playing on this. But the problem here is, she never understand the causes of falling down. What I mean is, if she does not like to play anymore on this, she tries to get down and never worried where the sitting bar is. If she want to come out, it has to happen in a next second. So we have to pay full attention on her when she plays.

Wow... I could catch the moon :P

Wow Wow Dance

Hmm... Even I don't know the meaning of Wowwow! She simply told this and danced. It really did not strike us when she was doing first time, later we thought that we forgot to capture this, so asked her 100 times and finally she did this, but it did not look like the first one.

Diwali Celebration - 2011 @ Bangalore

Like last year, this year also Thamizhini scared very much for crackers sound. Last year she did not know what is happening, but was frightening too much. But this year she was seeing how crackers are burst and still scared for the sound. Anyways she likes to hold sparklers in her hand but still frightened for bursting sounds.

Somehow Maama -ve Ice pannanum....else he will scare me much!!!

This year celebration was in my Anna's new house at Bangalore. It was not a planned trip, in last minute my brother told me that he is not coming, so we thought we will go there and celebrate. We started early morning to Bangalore on Tuesday and reached there by around 9:30 AM. The travel was too good even though we were worried about raining. Thamizhini was enjoying the travel and was looking left and right even in the dark and was telling Car and Lorry all the way.

Hmm... Tomorrow is Diwali,  But look at the house, how it looks...

In the night, Anna's friend family had come for dinner and their son named Rupesh joined Thamizhini to play and celebrate Diwali. That night was really fun filled one. I cannot forget it. Thamizhini wanted to hold sparklers in her hand till it goes off. The little one does not have fear at all and never understand what we say. 

I'm not scared! But Amma. She is not allowing me to hold sparklers in my hand!!

On Diwali we woke up early and got Thamizhini also ready with new dress. We had breakfast and started to "Meenakshi Sundareshwarar Temple" in Bannerhatta road. I had been to that temple every week when I was in Bangalore. The temple did not change at all and even the priests. :-) 

 After darshan we came back and changed our outfits to casual one and marched to Rupesh's house for Lunch. It was a grand lunch and we had good time there. As we chit chatted for sometime,  both Thamizhini and Rupesh spent time by playing and of course, fighting for the Car to go ride!

Free ride in Rupesh Anna's Car!!!

In the evening we burst crackers and had great time again with those two kutties. They both were scared about crackers and the noise. Both were crying like anything. Check out the photos...

Discussing..... (Look at Thamizhini...) and that black dress is Sona!!!

Uncle Click us well....

Thamizhini enjoyed at childrens park and liked to play in the slider very much. We clikced some of  the happy moments there :P

Thanks Sona aunty for all the Photos!!!

Full of the joys of spring

Playing in the park is fun for all the children and Thamizhini is no different! From 4:30 in the evening, we usually start telling her like, "Drink the Juice, will go to Park" "Have this apple, will go to Park"! She will be very much enthusiastic and energetic in the evening to go to Park and play with her friends.

Refreshing....

She would like to play with elders also. She calls Akka Akka and goes behind them for playing. Tara akka is her best friend these days, you know why? she plays with Thamizhini nicely and she takes Thamizhini with her when playing  in the Slide, Swing and on the Duck. Check out the video how they both play:

Are you able to find the Kitty in the below photograph?  Somehow kitty came in side the play area and kids were going behind wherever the kitty goes. Thamizhini also played with that for sometime, but little bit frightened to catch that.

Look at the kitty!!!

One big issue I was facing after she turned one was "Sleeping in the night". These days she gets up exactly by 1:30am in the night and will not sleep until 5:30.  Yeah! Feeling Sad for me, Thanks. :-) I tried lot of ways to make it straight, but no luck. One of the way  is to make her walk / play in the evening. I literally make her walk walk and walk. I do not take her in my hands, I simply leave her for walking.

Ball Venuma??

Check out the video to know what we do in the evening. You will know how she talks and calls her granny too! You must be surprised to see how she understands that we talk to her.

Reading Books

I have already written about her fondness on books and how she likes to see / read her books.  As I said earlier, there is no timing for it. And any body can take the book and show for her. It is not necessarily me or his Dad. Her grandparents can also show her books and tell her what it is. 

Reading is my passion

As of now she has many books and she knows almost all the books names. It may not be the exact name of the book but we have put some small names to it.

she has lengthy list of books, namely:

1) Brown Bear Brown Bear What do you see (We say just Brown Bear book)

2) Nursery Rhymes with CD and music notes with it. (Kakka Book, as crow is there)

3) My Pretty Board-Books: Animals And Birds (Animals)

4) Pre school Activities (anna book as anna do cycling in this book)

5) Fruits ( same as the name)

6) Flowers (Poo Book)

Kakka kanom... bye bye!!!

and she has Snoozers, Chikka Chikka Boom Boom, King Geroge, Lord Indra and some of Barbie's book. But these are all yet to start reading as it is bit thin papers compared to that hard books :P Yeah, I'm worried! Even though we don't spend much time for these books, she knows some of the characters like king, puppy, frog and etc on the books by seeing pictures!

I'm searching my Animals Book

She loves mainly 3 books here: Brown bear, Animals and Preschool activity books. In Animals book, she knows minimum 3 to 4 animal and bird names per page. As she is yet to talk, we ask the name of the animal / bird and she puts her finger on it. 

Check out the attached videos like how she used to sit and read her book. 

If we ask a animal which we have not told her before, she will simply put her finger on any of the animal, but mainly not on the known animal. She never waste a second for showing it to the wrong one, but if she knows she will take some seconds to think / find and show it.

Oh! Book... bye bye....!!!

Sometimes our conversation will be like this and it is very funny to listen her.
Me: Wheres the Animals book?

Thamizhini: (Searches for half a minute and) "bye bye" and shows her hand as not found!

These days this is usual for her, If something is not found or not able to find it out, she says that is gone "bye bye".  

Its weekly magazine....

Sometimes she takes weekly Tamil magazines and ask us to read for her. Whatever it is, she likes to see the pictures on it and we have to say something about the pictures. More importantly, even in the night (or I should say early in the morning) around 3 O' clock, she asks me to get a book and read for her. Just think about me, will I be happy for this?

Related Links: Reading Interest1, Reading Interest2

Saraswati Pooja

This is second Saraswati Pooja for Thamizhini. Last year she was very small and she did not know what was happening at all. But this year she was wondering from morning the time that she woke from bed as I was busily cleaning the pooja shelf and arranging for pooja. Also, this year too she does not know what is special on this Pooja.:-)

I'm Ready Ready...

Previous day iteself we have bought all the required things like Vaazhaikandru, Thennanguruthu, Poo and Maavilai, also importantly Sundal and Pori. But Thamizhini slept early that day and she did not see all these things, but in the morning after the bath, she started romaing and found lots of interesting stuffs for her. But some how we arranged for the pooja and look at the below picture for how it looked.

Ah! Saamy ku ethuku Thengai n Pazham???

Also look at the books that we have kept in front of Goddess! The top one is Thamizhini's "Brown Bear Brown Bear" :-)

Ah... Pori and Sundal too???

This is how we decorate for Pooja each year and we started Pooja by 9:45. We generally offer Pori and Sundal for Saraswati Pooja, so after Pooja as Prasadam we gave Sundal and Pori to Thamizhini. She ate those and I guess she liked it very much. We used to give Sundal now and then, but Pori is the first time for her. She loved to eat it. 

Amma, Why didn't you tell about / show Pori  for this long?

In the evening we had been to "Dhandeeswaram temple" in Velachery and spent almost an hour there. The temple is very big and Thamizhini wanted to walk on her own. So we sat for sometime leisurely in the temple and she was just walking here and there. 

Naan valargiren Amma.... and Thankyou Maama for this wonderful cute dress.. All matching matching.. :-)

I'm very much surprised to see this, because she used to get scared for most of the things like, if see sees someone coming near to her,  if people talk in louder voice. But these days she never cares about anyone, as if she is the only one in the temple, she was walking and running sometimes. Also she goes to other kids and calls them as "Paappa... Paappa.." And sometimes says Hi and gives Hi5 if we ask her to do so!!!. Oh! My little one is growing old and knows how to behave with others.