Another feather In the cap!

Another milestone achieved! It's official!

CHINIPIE READS!!!

And the momma is doing a little jig! Chini reads everything from books to magazines to to newsletters to titles to banners to traffic signs!!

Summers saw her reading short sentences with 3 to 4 words and now she can do the whole book, sometimes without any help! Of course, it shouldn't have too many multi-syllable words coz then she loses interest. Nevertheless, she surprises me! She can read those'step 2' learning to read books without any help! Now many a times, sugarbun goes to her, "didi, will you read the book to me?" And, sure enough, she does!

I still very vividly remember my 18 months old chini, sitting on the couch and turning the pages of a book with a "phii ka hua.. Then what happened". Must like her momma would do while reading her the stories and yes, I was trying to raise a bi-lingual chini. By two, she was looking at the pictures and recognized the albhabet. At three, she was doing the sight words, even spotting them hidden in the big words. Before her fourth birthday, she could read many other small words and most definitely could give you an impression that she read the whole book when in truth, she was reproducing it on memorization.

And now, She reads independently even before I get to read to her first! Woo hoo!

We are working on the writing too! She can write small notes like thankyou, happy birthday and even attempts to write a story once in a while but we don'tget beyond one sentence as she has to ask for each spelling and then she loses her patience. But we are getting there. Her handwriting is getting beautiful each day, most definitely! Even her drawing Is now so illustrative and clear and pretty.

Oh! I think I am just a doting mom and should stop here.

And yes, I have to share this morning's story:

As it's almost time for school and chini is still in the bathroom. I call out and ask her if her potty is done.
3 is done. 1 is left
What??
I finished reading 3 books and am about to finish the last one.
!?!! ;-)

A birthday...

...would have been like any other day, if not made special by the wonderful kids!

And it all started 3 days before the b-day, when chinipie Realized that it's just around the corner. She said, "momma, I have to go to your birthday party." I guess, either she linked in her imaginative mind that birthdays means parties or she remembered that we, unfailingly, went out for dinner with our couple-a-friends every year. Sometimes, they would be the surprise ones arranged by the dad(yes! He is still very romantic at heart!). But, this year, my birthday came in the midst of the navratris when I fast. So, any such thing was out of question. So I say, "I will turn 31. We don't have parties at that age". I expected her to come out with her usual why's and how's series followed by a huge tantrum, and I started to think of all the possible answers for the upcoming rapid-fires plus preparing myself to face the melodrama. Instead, she stopped(we were walking to the car after picking her up from school) and gave me a surprised look,
"you will be 31?"
Yes
"wow! That's a big number!"
Errrrr. thanks for reminding that am fast aging honey

Later in the evening, when dad returns from work,
"papa, did you know momma's birthday is coming up. She is going to be 31."
Sugar adds, "she is going to be a big girl".
Thanks my lovely darlings

The next morning, " papa, it's momma's birthday tomorrow. We have to do something special."
What do you want to do, beta?
"I don't know"
Awwwwww

The evening before the b-day, she comes running to my room, "momma, here are some coins for you. I got them from my own piggy bank. Now you can buy that thing from the mall that aunty did to your nails!"
I just went speechless with the flow of her words. That was almost two weeks back. It was raining constantly since past few days and our routine evening walks had come to an halt. Me and the girls had taken a trip to the mall, where they had enjoyed playing at the slide. On our way back, a girl at one of the stalls stopped me and had demonstrated the nail polisher cum cuticle remover thing. Now my chinipie, being so pinkalicious had loved my nail instantly and wanted me to buy it. When I said I couldn't, her curious mind could only be satisfied by the answer that it was expensive. She had somehow remembered that episode and had opened her piggy bank to be able to buy that for me!
Just then, sugar comes running, "momma, a coin for you!"
And they kept trotting back and forth between their room and ours, bringing me coins with each return; until their profoundly touched momma caught hold of them and showered two wriggly and squirmy gals with hugs and kisses.

That very night, chinipie developed very bad ear infection and couldn't sleep well coz of her aching ear. Still, she was the first one to wake up in the morning, and the first thing she said as soon as she opened her eyes was, happy birthday, momma!" and her momma, with her sleepy eyes, mumbled a thank you and tried to snuggle with her, on the pretext of giving her a hug. But she managed to wiggle free and brought a page she had colored earlier as a gift. And the whole day, both the sisters kept bringing me some pictures they had colored. Though, originally they were painted with some other intention, but it's the thought that counted. My little girls thought that they had to give something to their momma and they kept bringing more and more!

And then whenever they remembered, they wished me or sang the birthday song for me, either alone or together.. Isn't it amazing how fast the time flies! Last year all my sugar could sing was " aaeee yayay u uu" in tune and this year she sings so flawlessly! Until last year, chini used to get upset that wad not her birthday, so as a rule, each birthday in the house were everyone's birthday. And she used to be so happy, that it was momma's, papa's, hers and her baby's(she still believes that sugar is her baby!) birthday. Chini has always loved playing pretend birthdays.. Ever since she was around 18 months, many a times we used to make pretend cakes out of handkerchiefs, napkins and blow the pretend candles out with her or me singing the birthday song! We, then, moved on to the drawings on the paper, cut outs, play dough and blocks! Invariably, those cakes are made for me. Oh, how I remember that teeny tiny chinipie, swaying side to side, shifting her weight from one foot to another, singing the birthday song, and pointing at me with a smile, every she would say happy birthday to momma! And she passed on this passion to sugar too, who just couldn't stop singing it fo me whole day!

How many more such birthdays do I want? Well, chini's current favorite number, 100!
Why? Coz just before going to bed tonight, she started crying," I do not want my momma to grow old and die!"
And only when I said I will live upto 100 years of age, did she go back to bed.
The dad muttered under his breath, "and then we will keep her in museum."
"nooooooo. I do not want her in a museum. I want her to live till 100 age and stay with us."
Yeah my sweet baby! Until you grow tired of your over-protective, old-fashioned and loud mom!

Chinipie's growing years - a snapshot

Let me try to justify my blog by trying to capture as much as I can from my girls' growing years. By and by, as i remember, I will keep adding more. Here, I will like to call on all my friends and family who used to get regular updates from me.. either in person or on the phone or live action, do remind me about the episodes/incidents you recollect. Let's travel back to the memory lanes together..

Since chinipie was the reason to start the blog, lemme start with her and will do the next post on my sugarbun.

My absolutely delightful, lovable and charming Chinipie has grown to be a very sensitive, intelligent and too-mature-to-be a 4-yr old! As I said earlier, she loves everything pink, takes a delight in all that a little girl should and is very proud to be a four year old! She is an amazing elder sister, a very lovely daughter and a great friend to all those who are around her. 

Let's go back to from where I left.... my Chinipie had turned 1 in April'08. For records, she had taken her first independent step (i.e. w/o support) on April 17th .. time- around 5 p.m.. distance covered- from the center table to the couch.. number of steps- 2 to the arms of - waiting Momma; who of course made such a hulla-baloo about it. But then she never attempted it again until there was the an entire audience to cheer her up in the lobby of the apartment building we used to live in. This was about 7-10 days after her first birthday. By the end of May, she was such a cutesy toddler! Together, me and her, used to explore the nature.. jump into the water puddles, look at the crawling earthworms, the busy ants, the spinning spiders, the humming bees, the pretty flowers complete with the chirping birds! She used to love to look at the cars, air-planes, bikes! I remember, how she used to love to climb up and down on the steps outside of  our apartment lobby. I used to take a thrill in the silhouette of a mom walking with a happy, chirpy toddler holding her finger(this feeling is still alive though with my sugarbun)..

And yes, books used to be her all time favourite.. the first time she scribbled something, she was just 11 months old (I guess I must have saved this one.. will have to dig it out!). She wasn't speaking much then, but could explain everything to me - with her actions and a few words that she could.  The sequence of her initial word power was something like this.. 

ka - for car and for what

key - for key, of course

cow - for the animal cow, of course!

tie - for the dad's tie

then she had moved on to 

Baaaney.. for barney, her then fav

Paaani.. for water

Naaani.. for granma

Gaaani... for granny.. there was this 74-yr ol' lady on our floor, who my chinipie used to adore a lot and spent lots of time with.. 

And then, she had picked on frm there.. The first multi-syllable work she had spoken was 

naap -kin for napkin.... for a long time she used to pronounce a as 'aa' like an apple was always an 'aappu' for she couldn't say the 'l' and the 'u' sound if it came at the end... diaper was a 'daapu' coz again she couldn't do the 'r' and the 'u' sound...

Now that we are on to her Language building skills, there a few episodes that I remember..

At around 15 months of age, I used to ask her what does papa wear to office and she used to point to her neck and say 'tie'!

At around 18 months... during the apple picking season, she had amazed all her co-riders (dad's frens) in the car by saying 'tee' pointing to a tree!

At around 22 months, she explained to the librarian that her dad is at work.. 'Papa aapis. cum baak ening'!

In the same library event, I had made a teeny-tiny black and white soccer ball out of play-dough and she had sent the entire room to an uproarious laughter by showing to each and everybody that she had a 'soccu baoo' and then trying to kick it, in the event smashing it with her feet!

At around the same time, she had amazed my friends, by telling them that the flying object in the sky is not an air-plane but a glider!!

And before we knew, she had begun to speak short sentences a few days before she turned two!

... more to be continued.. lemme just bask in these memories.. can't tell you how I am feeling at the moment... as if the entire events are unrolling live in front of my eyes.... and my eyes - they added their own dewiness to these fond images...