I had picked up a copy of Junior Chandamama for my kids. In that, they have a cartoon series that introduces an animal or a bird to its readers. This introduction is setup as an introduction with the animal or bird by a small girl who asks questions like “Where do you leave?, what kind of food do you eat? What other species do you have? etc. In this edition, they were introducing the Fox.
The small girl who was “interviewing” the animal was dressed like a jungle-bred girl – basically a green skirt drawn to give it a grass-like look. And had not worn anything on top.
My daughter, to whom, I was explaining the features of a fox, suddenly stopped me and asked “Amma, this akka has not worn anything on top. She is half-naked, Right?”
Your 2 years old daughter asks for a glass of water. You diligently give her that. Suddenly you hear loud noises – two of your neighbours are fighting cats and dogs. As usual, you are curious and want to peep from the window to catch a glimpse of their fight. You turn away wee bit to open the window. Suddenly your son starts shouting “amma amma”. You turn in time to see your darling daughter, apple of your eye, pouring the entire glass of water on the mattress 
Your son is sleeping quitely in his place. He is drowsy. Your little daughter goes close to him calling him “anna anna” (brother brother). You assume she is going there to pet him, give him a hug so he can doze off.. instead she grabs handful of his hair and pulls hard. It hurts him so much that he starts crying…
All this in half an hour’s time…
You spank her hard and then you see tears as big as pearls dropping down from those lovely eyes… you feel very sad for hitting her… you want to go near her to pet her… she runs away from you and says “I want chandramma (her baby sitter) …”
Her way of rubbing salt over my wounds…
What do YOU do in such situations?
My daughter has learnt to say the ABCD Rhyme. Her ABCD Rhyme goes like this:
A B C D E F G
H I J K L M N O P
L M N O P “KU” —— she cannot still pronounce Q. She says KU
R S T —– where did “U V” vanish?
W X I Z —— She says I for Y 
I had to get my daughter’s photograph clicked for her play home admission application. So, thought of posting it here… It just turned out black and white during scanning…but rest assured… she is VERY colorful 
Aditi started play school from this Monday. Luckily for her, the play school teacher was out of town on vacation and was resuming work only on wednesday. Until then, the 2 maids at the play school had strict instructions to let the kids come into the play school and spend time there for 1 to 1.5 hours. And they also were instructed to let the kids play all through their time there.
Day-1: Aditi went in very happily. And why not? This play school is diagonally right opposite to my house. Every day evening, she goes there to play on the baby swing and slide. It is familiar environment. She was very happy. Played through an hour and then one of the school maids, dropped her home.
Day-2: Aditi went in eagerly and enthusiastically. She was allowed to play half an hour and then the maids, tired of running behind the kids decided to get them into the class room and let them play inside. That is when our lady started crying. She ran near the gate, started howling with her outstretched arm pointing at our house
The maids got so scared, one of them personally came home and dropped her home.
Day-3: Play school teacher was back. She allowed Aditi to play for half hour and then instructed them to get into the class room. Our lady started crying again so badly that the teacher had to haul her up beside her and teach the rest
Today morning, I had a conversation with Aditi:
Me: Puttamma, you will go to school today, right?
Aditi: No
Me: You will be a good girl and not cry, right?
Aditi: No
I shook my head and started laughing. Looks to me she had assumed that school was all play and no work. Lady, there is a long way for you to go!
