Hiya folks. Guess what?!!
Am back again. Not that you were eagerly awaiting my return, but still, I’m all chirpy and peppy today, so I won’t notice the meagre crowd flocking to this blog 🙂
There’s LOADS to update from the MomOfRS household and before it all gets washed away from my memory, I’m putting it down here.
Didn’t I mention before that the kids have started talking?
Well, I take that back now. They don’t talk anymore 😦
They jabber non-stop, at times making it awfully difficult to fathom what they intend to say!!
Apart from the speech, there is a distinct change in attitude, a certain way of behaving, retaliating,arguing!! We’ve been having a tough time answering the questions since they know how to ask ‘why’ but cannot understand the ‘because’. I’m also having a tough time instilling proper grammar and a little tameez. It’s an uphill task in a household, where the rustic GMIL has never used the ‘aap’ word before. She uses only ‘Tu’ or ‘Tum’!! The nanny too uses the same terms.The kids have picked it up pretty well and they usually ask me stuff like, “Tu office jaata“, to which I have to correct them and ask them to repeat,”Aap office jaate“. Though they repeat after me every time, their usual instinct is for ‘tu’. I hate that term and it irks me to no end when the kids use it. But then, I would have to change the way everyone at home speaks and that is not an easy thing 😦
Anyhow, here are a few samplers of how these two converse :-
1) Lui pulled out a steel container from the kitchen and brought it out in the drawing room where I was chatting with the BF and MIL. Shobs pounced on it the minute he saw it, but wily Lui managed to hang on to the box.
Shobs : mujhe de
Lui : Nai!! Mera hai
Shobs looks at us for help, but the BF has warned me that Shobs never holds his own against Lui and its time he learnt to fight his own battles. So we just watched how the situation would work out.
Shobs tried to grab at the vessel again, but Lui snatched it away and glared at Shobs menacingly. Shobby, being a gentle soul at heart, gave up the fight. This disappointed us a bit and we went back to our prior discussions. Lui, in order to gain attention, dropped the vessel on the floor. The BF immediately reprimanded her for it.
Lui : Thoby ne giraya.
Then turning to Shobs, this cunning girl says, “Thoby,dabba kai-ko giraya” ? (I swear I have NO hand to play in the ‘kai-ko’ part 😐 )
Shobs replies defiantly, “Maine nai giraya“.
Lui raises an admonishing finger at her brother, “Nai girao dabba, Thoby“. Then she looks at her father for approval!!
The BF is caught between the urge to shake her for her smugness and admiration for the scheming monster that is her 😀
2) One day, I was playing with the kids at home. I threw the ball to the other end of the room and asked the kids to fetch it (hey!! no pet-training accusations please !!) In her hurry to rush before Shobs, Lui shoves at her brother and reaches the ball first. Little Shobs is so annoyed at her behavior that he marches up to her and yells,”Luiyyya!! Mujhe dhakka maara!!” . Lui is stunned into silence to see her mostly obliging and meek brother turn into this indignant fierce person!! Way to go Shobs, I yelled 😀
3) Last weekend, the BF was lazing at home(recuperating is more like it, since he was bed-ridden for AGES!!). His back hurt, so he asked me to pummel his back a bit. I obliged and started hitting him with my fists. Shreiking like a banshee, Lui charged across the room and yelled at me to stop. “Nai maaro mere abba ko. Nai maaro!!”. She glared at me angrily. I ignored her and continued the beating 😀
Shobs was enjoying the scene and kept goading me,”Aur maaro, mummy, aur maaro“.
“NAI MAARO!!” yelled the girl and spread herself on top of her father, her tiny face contorted with anger.
The BF, was super-gleed as his ickle daughter came to his ‘rescue’. He’s been calling her his little warrior ever since 🙄
4) I was busy ironing my clothes one morning. The twins had just woken up and were still lazing around on the bed. Lui started coughing shortly.
Lui : Mamma…mujhe khud-khud aaya.
Shobs : Mamma….Lui ko kha-chi aati?
Me : yes baby.
Lui : Thoby, mujhe-ko kha-chi aati. Mujhe-ko dava do.
Shobs : Kha-chi aati?
Lui : Haaa-aaan.Thoby.Bhaiyya.Mujhe-ko davva do.
Shobs : Mamma…Lui ko kha-chi aati.Lui ko dava do.
Me : Yes of course. If you hadn’t told me, I would’ve never known!!
5) Shobs had just had his early morning milk and pooped in his diaper (Poop training is on hold for winters). The MIL entered the room with a bright multicoloured floor-mat.
MIL : Look what I got here?? A lovely mat for my sweethearts!
So saying,the MIL spread the mat on the bed. Lui immediately hopped over and sat cross-legged on the mat.
Lui : Thoby, aaja. Iddar baith.
Shobs didn’t reply. Neither did he move.
MIL : Kya hua Shobs? Why don’t you sit on the mat?
Shobs : Maine shi-shi kiya. Da-per mein. Abhi nai baith-ta. Kal baith-ta.
Needless to say, the MIL was smitten by Shobby’s sensibilities 😀
6) I had another one of my altercation with Lui one night. Since the time she started talking, she’s been one demanding child. Totally willful and stubborn, she refuses to listen to anyone else and only wants things done her way. I know we both are going to have many upheavals as she grows up and I’m mentally trying to prepare myself for it. Anyway, so she was in one of her moods when she didn’t want to wear her diaper or her pyjamas. She kicked wildly when I tried to pull up the pyjama and that was it. I snapped at her and told her that I wont be talking to her for the rest of the day (this was around 11:45 pm).So saying, I switched off the light and went off to sleep, leaving the miss to do whatever she wants. After about half an hour, she sidled up to me. She creeped up closer and kissed my cheek. Instinct took over and I kissed back.
Lui : Kai-ko puppy diya? Kai-ko?
Me : Huh?? kyunki aapne diye.
Lui kissed me again. I kissed her back.
Lui : arrey!!! Kai-ko puppy diya?? Nai do.
Me : Huh? Okay.
So she kissed me one more and then settled herself next to me. Within minutes, she was fast asleep. Seeing her sleeping, I took a chance and quickly tried to put on her diaper again.
Lui : Arrey!! Diaper kaiko dali? Nikalo. Abhi!!!
The girl wasn’t asleep after all 😦
So I pulled it out and waited for her to drift off again. Thrice that night, I woke up to put on her diaper and all the three times, she woke up and insisted on removing it (Note: NEVER buy Mamy-Poko pull-up diapers for wilful kids.They are very easy to get rid of).
*Sigh*
I gave up the fight. And slept 🙂
Luckily, there were no accidents in the night and somewhere around 6am the next morning, I put on her diaper and pyjamas. Luckily, this time, she slept through it 🙂
7) Lui is more possessive about her stuff than Shobby. My little boy doesn’t bother even if Lui takes away all his stuff. But Lui is far away from being generous with him.
One such time, the nanny had pulled on a red pyjama on Shobs after his bath. Now, I usually buy gender-free clothes for the two and we don’t mind who wears what. This red pyjama was worn by both for a pretty long time. But suddenly, Lui realized that she liked it better and didn’t appreciate the thought of Shobs wearing it.
Lui : Nikalo mummy. Mera pant hai woh. Nikalo.
Me : Its ok dear. Just today, let your brother wear it. Aaj ek din. Bas.
Lui : Naaaiiiii..Mera hai woh. Usa-ko nai do.
And then she proceeded to throw a royal tantrum, throwing herself on the floor and kicking her arms and legs and wailing for the pyjama. I didn’t want to give in to her demands (unreasonable as they were) and kept quiet.
Shobs watched the proceedings for a while and then suddenly, without warning, went up to Lui, removed his pyjama and threw it on Lui’s face.
“Le teri pant“, he said quietly.
We were shocked!! Lui was stunned! She just looked on meekly as Shobs walked out of the room with his head held high and bums shining bright!
*Sniff*
8) The twins are grasping words very fast, but that doesn’t mean they are able to say it equally well. Lui has a slight lisp and tends to talk fast. So words like “Kapde” come out like “tapade”. Shobs talks slowly, succinctly. But at times, he is so slow, we call him slow-motion. Because he says stuff like this :-” Mumma….Mujha – ko…. Cha…ma…ch do“. Or, “Yeh ka- cha- la hai?”
😀
I guess the best part about the speech is the bridging of the communication gap between us and the kids. At least now, if their tummies ache, they can tell us, instead of the old times when they cried non-stop and we were left with wringing our hands , wondering what possibly could be wrong!!
These are good times indeed 🙂
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I guess if I continue to go on, I won’t get any work done today. Lets keep some updates for tomorrow or the day after.
By the way, it feels great to be back 🙂
Missed you all!!
Noor,
Please please give lots of tight hugs and kissies to the two monkeys from me! This one was so well written that I could actually hear them in my head 😀 Artim is also saying a few words now, but the word of choice is as always “mama”(when he wakes up in a good mood) or “mummma” (come here immediately or else) or “mumaahh” (I’ve done something very bad, but I’m ready to give you a kiss now) and so on and so forth!
LOL!!!
Love the way Artim changes his tone. I tell you, kids these days are far more sly than what we give them credit for 😀
You just wait and see. It SO MUCH FUN to hear them talk, to string their own logic and reasoning!!
Such a heartwarming post Noor. What I liked best was little Shobs giving the red pyjamas to little Lui and walking off head held high and bums shiny! Awww… 😀
Thanks Shail 🙂
LOL @ shobs walking away with head held high and bums shining- the little Gentleman has Class… That was very ticklish to read.
Thank you for sharing this..it warms the cockles of my heart and brings back good memories too :).
There’s so much more……I hope I have the time and patience to put it all down here 🙂
Loved the read.. n we all wait for you and your post!!!
Lovely..!! 🙂
Awww Sheets 🙂
You make me feel good 😀
Lovely post.. and good to have Shobs and Lui back. Your son’s a true gentleman, cheers to that and Lui is the quintessential queen.. great. I’ve had plenty of struggles with the tu/aap bit.. I was so successful that one day my son came home and told me ‘Mama a boy in school said ‘Tu ullu hai’.. mama he said ‘tu’ not ‘aap’… the ‘ullu’ bit totally lost on him. Strange kid though using that kind of language at 4.5 years.
Hi OM,
I wouldn’t go as far to call Sobs a ‘gentleman’ 😀 . Its just that on some very rare occasions, he’s able to get one up on his sis !
As for the tameez part, I’ve seen kids younger than 4 years using foul language. The pity is, they usually pick it from their homes, people whom they hear talking like this 😦
Thats what scares me a bit 😐
[…] could. She’s the one who runs to me when I come back from work. She’s the one who gets up in the middle of the night to plant kisses on her mumma’s cheeks but hates being kiss…. She’s the one who wouldn’t think twice before going down on her knees and kissing my […]