Mini Mart

Little Miss Haana in the poster for her school's Mini Mart event coming up on March 4, 2016.

Tricksy

When little Miss Haana was still a baby, I had decided to myself I will not lie to her. Not say or have her believe something that was not true. 

That memory is now a distant past! Lately I have claimed that chocolate spread turns mustard yellow (like peanut butter, but not peanut butter!) so I can add peanut butter on chocolate spread sandwitches. I have cloaked vegetables in unsuspecting places and claimed they never existed. 

Recently in the morning I was prepping  a dress for the little girl to wear that day. It was a special day at school and she could wear a spring dress instead of the uniform that day. Initially the little girl asked me to pick out 3 dresses for her, lay them out next to each other and then, she'll choose one of them to wear that day. Incidentally, a week or so back, on valentines' day Friday, I had picked out 4 clothing options for her to wear for their valentines' day party at school. And she had gone with a fifth option- a dress of her own choosing. This time, I was wiser. I told her I'm going to choose just 1 dress and that's the one she must wear. She gave me a non commital look.

Later, when she saw the one I had picked, it met with instant approval. The dress was mostly red with little white flowers all over. It also had blue flower, blue ribbons on the waist, and a blue piping on the knees. I picked out blue tights which exactly matched the color of the blue in the dress. In my silliness, I took out another option for tights, also blue, but a shade lighter- not the exact shade as the dress.

Guess which tights the little girl wanted to wear? The other blue - the one that does not match the dress! It baffled me, but I realized arguing is useless.

Instead, I resorted to trickery! I hid the other lighter blue tights and claimed the one that matches is in fact, the one she liked and wanted. Everyone was happy!

Isn't all's well that ends well?

Best Animal at the Zoo

Fort Worth zoo had eluded us for a long time. For some reason we had never actually made it there with little Miss Haana. So the week before last, with the blessings of the weather gods, I decided we must pay our visit to the animals.

We had just bought the tickets at the front gate when little Miss Haana sighted a balloon. She informed us that a balloon had been sighted and so, she'll be needing one. "On our way back home", promises were made.

We were delighted looking at the colorful flamingoes, most of them taller than the little girl. Some standing on one leg, some on two. A couple were sleeping with their long necks all wrapped around their feathers! Bright pink and orange colored, they were a sight to enjoy. We had peanut butter chocolate sandwiches and enjoyed the sights. 

We saw a huge crocodile basking in the sunshine, sleeping lazily. It was so still in its slumber, initially I thought it's not even real. But then the eyes moved. But that was the extent of the movement. A few steps away was another aquarium, this one with several long snouted alligators. This one also had turtles of varying sizes and fishes. 

We moved on to find gazelles and deers next. And soon came upon a small pond with several furry little white goslings. They were so cute and cuddly, fuzz-balls. The little girl went "oh so cute! How cuddly!!!" over them. I told her: "See, that's exactly what mumma feels about you every time I see you!!". 

The most anticipated place in the zoo was the aviary where you can feed the birds and they'll sit on your hand; it was unfortunately closed! I was bummed for a bit, but there was still much to see.

We saw penguins, owls; eagles wih wingspan more than 6 feet wide. Kangaroos up next but none of them were mommy kangaroos so none of them had a pocket. I told the little girl if we can find the mumma kangaroo, then we can fit little Gugu in her pocket and come back tomorrow to get her. She faked upset, but mostly we giggled!

We came upon this Wild West section, which amongst other things had a carriage (without the horse). We spent the next (seemingly) several hours (minutes) going in and out and in again and out again, then in from this door, then look out from the other window of the carriage. Then we went through a bridge held together by ropes so it moved and shaked. We giggled as we went back and forth on the bridge over and over again. On the other side of the bridge we briefly saw a black bear, but then got sucked into a small sand table. Little miss Haana made sand castles with  intent and determination. Birds chirped, winds changed, tides turned, stars moved but we were still at the sand castle table. Finally when we left the sand, it was only to go back and play at the funny bridge again. And of course, it was the carriage again. 

We went and stood in the line for the train to take us back to near the entrance so we can see the other animals we hadn't covered. As we stood in line, little Miss Haana made friends with the girl next to her. Soon they were talking, laughing, holding hands, wanting to sit next to each other in the train. 

Once out of the train we watched the rhinoceros but little Miss Haana was more interested in climbing the fence. As all of our energy was ebbing, little Haana and I had a falling off. Sulking ensued but not for long, we made up with "Sorry mumma", kisses and hugs. 

Soon it was time to head back home. We were not able to see all animals. I think we spent the most time at the zoo with this 2 legged, 2 armed animal that kept going in and out of a carriage! This one also chose a toy for herself (an elephant, for all the elephants we didn't actually see!) and headed back home with us! So long zoo.

 

Real and Pretend

The house is divided into 2 sections.

One section- is the neat and clean, tidy section. This is the section that no one visits usually. And then, there's that other section.

There are varying degrees of persistent clutter. My personal tolerance of mess has hit record levels. Still, it grates me. Till I can take it no more, and an operation de-clutter has to be undertaken. I start with finding trash bags to fill with old forgotten toys, clothes or unbelievable quantities of odds and ends. Sometimes I get into trouble. 

As I clear through the clutter and find things to banish, the little girl occasionally with sift through the rubble of the bags I fill; and finds her prized possessions. She comes back and gives me the you-bad-girl look and demands an explanation of why her precious princess crowns and bottle caps and old sea shells and single, lonely socks and paper fans were all in a suspicious "bag" together.

The clutter seems to have reproduction  properties. It multiplies in no time. I have my suspicions on a little girl but she insists otherwise:

It's all because of those gpretend things, she says. 

Apparently there's a pretend dog, cat, a mouse and possible other pretentions that live together with us. This morning when I demanded why small bits of paper were left behind next to the glider (these were remnants of stickers), little Miss Haana told me those are for her pretend doggy. He likes to eat them! "There's a pretend dog?", I asked. "Mm hmm", I was told, "Of course there is".

The argument was air-tight. 

I asked her to remind me to give her a real tickle for all her pretend pets!