Kids fascinate me

After having been a full-time mom for 4 1/2 years, this is my first step towards considering building a career. The point where the clouds part just a teeny bit and a single beam of  light shines through. I think I finally know what I want to do with my life. I am sure I have said this about 27.75 times before in the 28 years of my life but this is it.  What do you mean," How do you say something .75 times?".  By stopping 3/4 of the way through the sentence! And now, if you are done interrupting me with your silly questions, may we please get back to the point? Like I said, I just discovered that kids fascinate me. And how does a simple thought like "Wow! these little extra terrestrial creatures are fascinating" translate to 'considering building a career'?

Well...I have been wanting to work for a while now. For the simple reason that I want to. Probably because MiniMe is grown up now. Define grown-up? She's been around for 4 1/2 years. That's grown-up enough for her. So, she needs less of my time and I have too much time on hand. Moreover I am a people person. I am happy on my own but I do need my daily dose of human contact to stay sane. And from what I hear, kids are human too. I know! That sure did come as a surprise.

So, I started volunteering at the local public school. I work with kindergarteners. Around the same time, my daughter's Montessori teacher gave me a class tour. And as you already know, I love psychology. All of this in combination with the cutest things that kids say every once in while led me to this revelation that I actually love these Lilliputian alien type thingies that are actually humans.   They are cute. They are fun. And they are not scared of making mistakes. They say things like,"Round and round the garden like a teddy bear. 1 step. 2 step. Tickle your underwear!!!" with the kind of confidence that would blow your mind! It is only with these creatures that we can have conversations like:
MiniMe: I don't like this car!
Me: Why?
MiniMe: Because the front seats move.
Me: But, they move in all cars.
MiniMe: Oh! Mother Nature made all the cars with seats that move?

Girls!

Girls like dressing up. Most of them. No matter where they are born, or where they grow up. At some point in their life, and that point comes around surprisingly early on in life, they want to wear mommy's makeup and mommy's clothes and mommy's shoes (they always pick the high heels) .  I wonder why. Why is it that we are born programmed to want to dress up? I know girls who don't want to. But they are an alarmingly small group. Look at mini me. I remember secretly dressing up in my mum's pretty sarees and talking to myself in the mirror. Mini me has no sarees to wear but she's doing pretty well with my dupattahs.  

I even see her talking to herself all the time. Just like me. And then I realised that she will never ever be bored in life. Like my sister-in-law pointed out...I am a "DREAMER".  That's what she told me. In quotes, all caps, and bold with an underline. And I am blessed. Because, I dream. And so does my little one.

And I know that boys are hardwired too. My 2 1/2 year old nephew sees the Zoobi Doobi song  from 3 Idiots and goes," Mommy! I like that orange aunty a lot." You guessed right! The 'orange aunty' is the lead actress dancing in the rain in an orange saree :) And my 3 year old neighbour (he was 3 about 15 years ago) came back from his first day at preschool and the only thing that he seemed super happy and excited about was his 'ladki' teacher!! Talk about being born with a one track mind.

The deduction...

Poor little baby. Mini me. She's just stuck for life with these nomadic parents and it sure is confusing the heck out of her. Today she went to the day care for a kid's night out. They took her swimming. When I went back to pick her up, she, very promptly, pointed out that I had forgotten to put her swimming goggles in her bag. What she did not realise was that I hadn't forgotten. I just didn't think she would need them. Mini me "never ever ever never ever never never" puts her head under water. And she claims that if she said never ever non-stop for the entire time it takes us to drive from home to her school, it might not suffice. So, my not giving her the googgles was totally justified. Uh-uh! I had not been my usual self (translating to irresponsible!) ;)

Anyway, when she got back, she demanded an explanation. I tried the truth but I don't think she even heard it (like father like daughter). She asked me if I even knew where her goggles were. I told her they were at home. She goes," Ooooooooh!" (and that's the longest Oh I have ever heard anyone say). " Now I know why. It is in our old house!" It sure was a challenge for her to grasp the truth about the 'old house'. She just couldn't believe that someone else lived there.  And so did all 'their' stuff.  She thinks that every house we have ever lived in is still ours.  We just moved out because the house got messy while we were trying to pack a couple of boxes!!

I had to break the news to her and there was no easy way to it. I crossed my fingers and held my breath and I told her the truth. Again. This time the truth worked. After about 5 minutes of serious deep contemplation, she goes," So, is that why people have so many things in their house ? So, if someone comes to their house they will see the stuff and know it's not their house. And then they will get out and go looking for a house which has their stuff ?"

Right now I think her biggest fear in life is that we might just not remember which house we currently live in :)

Birthday bash...

Thank god (if there is one) for mini me being only 4 years old and much smaller than me. If not, I would literally have had a birthday 'bash'. Really! She's 4 years old and she's 38lbs. She isn't even half my size. Her head doesn't even come up to my waist. And I still get kicked early in the morning by this little lilliput. I swear it wasn't my fault! Not this time.  And no! I am not making this up either. She actually kicked me. She held o to me so she wouldn't lose balance and she kicked me. For the first time in her life. And believe it or not, it was because I was born today. Actually, come to think of it, it was for claiming to be born today. We still haven't been able to establish the fact or prove to her that it is indeed my birthday. We tried. We really did. And we tried mighty hard. But, she just doesn't buy this cock n bull story about my being able to have a birthday without it being hers too :) So, she kicked me for lying to her. She hates me for being given the privilege of picking a restaurant of my choice, and she hates me even more for picking a place that doesn't serve mac n cheese. She doens't like it that I got a camera for a gift (she got one for christmas and now it's not special anymore coz it seems like every tom, dick and harry can get a camera for a gift when it's not even their birthday!!) Anyway, I am hoping she will forget and forgive me by tomorrow morning for being born on a day that she so doesn't approve of...

Colours...

It's funny how life changes once you get married. I had almost forgotten how much I loved colours until about 2 months back when I signed up for a beginner's Acrylic painting class. And then the flood gates opened and it all came back to me. The magic of colours. Shades. Tones. Tints. The play of lights and shadows. The movement of colours in a painting. Transparency. Opacity. The pain of mixing purples. Grey scales. Watercolour paper. Palette knives. The feel of thick acrylics on my fingertips. The joy of having paint stuck under my fingernails and the joy in ruining my only pair of comfortable jeans with dabs of paint. And strange as it may sound, the joy in knowing that those dabs are never going to come off :) But like I said, life happens. First the cooking and laundry and dishwashing happens.  Then the diapers and feeding happens. And then the bedtimes and 'brush your teeth-RIGHT NOW!!' happens. And suddenly, one fine day it dawns upon you that you haven't so much as picked up a paint brush or palette knife in years.

But, I am glad to be back. And I'm glad to be married to a 'minimalist' who doesn't crib about the paint tubes and brushes and palette and paper and scissors and foam sheets and glitter glue and gesso and gloss medium and hair dryer strewn around...

Paranormal Activity...

Living with 4 year olds, especially caring considerate independent "big girl" 4 year olds, sometimes feels like living in a haunted house. With the spook being scared of the dark herself, and the whole house gleaming with night lamps, we sometimes see shadows moving around, floor boards creaking, the water running in the sink. Sometimes, I hear a voice, almost bordering at a cry, call out to me a few times, but when I answer, an I-can't-take-it-anymore, deafening silence is thrown at me. Now I know that the silence is mini-me having resolved her wrestling match with her quilt. Sometimes in the wee hours of the morning, we are woken up, rather rudely, with a kick in the gut or a head bang or sometimes even a not-so-subtle slap in the face only to find a dwarf-ish figure fast asleep. And we try to think when exactly did this Lilliput get here and we haven't got a clue. She's so quiet, and such a smooth operator, we never know when she comes or goes. On some days, around dawn, I would get a strong feeling that there's someone in the room. Like someone's staring at me. I open my eyes hoping to end a nightmare and expecting to see nothing. But, there it is. A shadow moving at the foot-end of my cot, crawling into bed and under my quilt. With some good fortune, I have grown up to be someone who neither believes in ghosts nor God. And that's probably why I haven't ended up like that guy in some horror movie who walked through a graveyard at night, heard some coins jingle in his pocket, thought it was the ghost's anklets and died of a heart attack (funny movie, that one!!) . And soon I might write a thesis on 'The Types of Silences that Operate in a Typical Household and How To Identify Them' ;)

Yay!! Happy birthday Fluff :)

Fluff is a year old. Yay!! And Mr. M has a problem with only 3 people having met Fluff.

Oh! and mini me forgot about the book. She hasn't talked about it and I don't think she wants it anymore :)