Chinipie talks

and makes sure you are engaged in the conversation.

A typical conversation, you will hear, anytime..

Chinipie: (pointing to a animal figure in a picture book) Maama! Maama! ka?
Maama: Dog
Chinipie: woooooooo
Maama: Woof! Woof!
Chinipie: (smiles) Whoo!
and this repeats at least 25 times until something else catches Chinipie's attention. Though, 'ka' and 'e ta' are used interchangeably.


Chinipie: (pointing to a animal figure in a picture book) Maama! Maama! ka? ka?
Maama: Cow
Chinipie: woooooooo
Maama: Moooo! Moooo!
Chinipie: (turns the page and points to another animal figure) Maama! Maama! ka? ka?
Maama: Tortoise
Chinipie: woooooooo
Maama: errrrr...
Chinipie: wooooooo
Maama frantically tries to turn the page back to the picture of cow

If any of you could help me with the sounds of turtle, zebra, kangaroo, giraffe and the likes, i mean, any other animal other than the barnyard ones, I would be highly grateful to you. Coming to think of it, these animals must also make some sounds.. how come they are not as popular as the lion's roars and dogs woofs?!?

Chinipie: (pointing to an object in a picture book) Maama! Maama! e ka?
Maama: Boat
Chinipie smiles and lifts both her hands up, swaying them and closing and opening her fists
Maama: Row, Row, Row your boat gently down the stream.... tries to sing the rhyme to her as close to the actual version as possible (I hope you all know how pathetic a singer Chinipie's momma is)

Yep! you guessed it right. This is how, my little girl dances. And she loves dance and music. Each times, she hears a song, her hands automatically go up. At times, we have used music to pacify a wailing Chinipie. Alas! I have not been able to click a picture of hers in the dancing pose yet. Promise to post it as soon as I have one.

By the way, she says 'Maama' ever since she was 7 and a half months old, initially i doubted if she actually meant it.. you see, i didn't want to be over-joyous.. though my heart was filled with pride every time she said that. Now, 'Maama' and 'Papaa' are her favourite words. Though, she calls her dad 'Maama' sometimes, especially, in the mornings, when she gets up and crawls towards him and kisses him with a 'Maama'. The other words she says, very clearly, are 'Bye-Bye', 'Ta-Ta' (used inter changeably for bye) and 'Bebe' for baby. She waves bye and blows kisses to DH every morning. In fact, she so much loves waving bye to him that as soon as she sees him dresses up, she starts waving her hand and saying 'Tye tye'... She is not bothered that daddy is yet to have his breakfast or wear his shoes. Last week, she used to cry and cling to him, when he would finally be leaving, but she happily waves him bye now.

A huge correction! I was just reviewing what I wrote and there's a very wrong piece of information I gave. Clearly, her favourite word is 'ka'! How could I ever say, it was something else. In her 9th month, she loved experimenting with 'Papa', when she would keep chattering 'Pappaaa', 'Papaii'. 'pepa' and the likes. But her 10th month onwards, it's clearly 'ka'. I clearly remember the first time she had uttered this word. It was in India, when in January, I, along with her, was visiting my father and brothers and she had pointed to the light that I had just switched on with a 'ka'. My brother, who was just going out of the room had stopped and looked at her. Obviously, an over-joyed me, had instantly said, 'light' and turned to my brother with a delight and asked, 'Did you see that?' Happily, I went on replying 'light' and fan' to her every 'ka', making a mental note to myself to update her Dad on this development, when he called up that night. Her curiosity and zeal to know everything around has taken new heights and she goes ka-ka-ing the whole day and night too! Twice or thrice, she ka-ed in her sleep, too, and with a lifted hand and pointed finger on top of that! When I first heard her, I got up to check if she has woken up and soon I realized that my little curious George cannot leave her inquisitiveness in her sleep too! Whatever had held her interest and whom-so-ever she had asked that, I hope she got an answer for her 'ka'!