Perfect Pet

Yesterday, as soon as little Miss Haana woke up, she came running up to me and said- Mumma, I had a great idea!!! When I'm 5 years old, I'll get a real pet! 

"Hmm", I said, "You already have a pet. The doggy dog and red riding hood...", referring to her stuffed toys. 

She said no, a real one! That's alive!!

"You mean a perfect pet?", this time referring to a recent book we had read where a little girl in the book wanted a pet, but every time she had a suggestion for the pet, the parents thought that was not a perfect pet (it sheds, scratches, too scary, too big etc). Then the girl settles for a bug. 

Gugu said, "Yess! A perfect pet!". 

"You mean like a bug?"

"No, bugs are scary. We will get a cat. And papa said yes."

"But Papa is not Mumma. And mumma has not said yes."

"But it will be the perfect cat!!"

"Hmm.. What kind of cat is it gonna be? A real one? What color is it gonna be?"

"Yes, a reaaal cat! It will have rainbow colors!!! You know some cats have black and white like a zebra? But they're not zebras. They are mostly black with a little bit of white!"

By this time I thought I need a visual.

I said Gugu, you need to draw what your cat will look like. Why don't you draw me one. 

So, out came paper, pencils, color pencils and later, sparkles!! Little girl made what her perfect rainbow sparkles cat would look like.

See pictures below:

Notice it has 5 legs and initially had no tail. Then, when asked about the whereabouts of the tail, a tail appeared. First it had a tail like a horse. Then I showed her pictures of real cats and the tail was touched up a bit.

:-)

We are still on the look out for 5 legged cats for Miss Haana's pet. If you know of any, call us. On second thoughts, don't call. I'll call you!!!

 😀😀😀

Pictures:

Perfect Drop

Spring is finally here and since the daylight saving time has changed the evenings are bright and balmy.

Miss Haana and I went for a walk after dinner in our neighborhood. We headed first towards the gazebo facing the lake. Played around for a little bit and then walked next to the lake; along a pathway lined with tidy bushes. As we were walking by suddenly a cat raced through the bushes, scared both of us and ran away. After we realized what happened, we both laughed at ourselves. The cat turned around and looked at us from a safe distance in dismay.

A couple ducks came by towards us in a hurry. Probably expecting dinner from us, but were soon to be disappointed. The little girl looked over at them and said "Hi duckie!" Ducks turned away disappointed and Miss Haana mused "Why didn't it say quack-quack?" 

All along Miss Haana had been picking up dry leaves from the ground and handing them out to me for safe keeping. I may be partly to be blamed for this. Earlier in the fall when beautiful red and golden leaves were beginning to fall off the trees, she and I collected bags full of colorful leaves. They were later dried, sealed and converted into an art-and-craft project. I tried telling her these leaves were now too dry, but soon realized it was not the winning side. 

So I kept holding the dry leaves she was handing out to me. Occasionally she would check to make sure I'm keeping them safe. When we were heading back towards home I wondered what to do with this bunch of dry leaves in my hand. I thought of leaving them on a bench and wondered if she will remember them just before turning to our lane and demand I get them back...

Such situations can be tricky!! We slowly ambled on.

Finally, now on the last leg just a few houses away, I quietly slipped the leaves from my hand away behind my back. And as we turned inside the door I heaved a sigh of relief when the topic of the leaves did not come up..

Cowgirl and other Mumma Stories

Some six months ago I bought a 2014 calendar that featured beautiful paintings (some looked like pictures) of horses. 

October featured a beautiful painting of a cowgirl next to her horse (just gotten off or about to ride the horse).

When Miss Haana saw that picture she declared "Mummaa".

I have to admit - I was super pleased.

Just sifting through the calendar today I  was reminded of it. 

On another note, yesterday for dinner we were at the dinner table. The little girl was in her high chair. On the other side of the room we have some open shelves and on the top one I had kept the canvas that was recently painted - fall trees in the sunshine. Miss Haana looked at it in the middle of dinner and said "Oh very nice painting Mumma!" Pleasantly surprised!

Yesterday when I reached the school to pick up my baby, the class room was brimming with noise. All the kids were shouting and running around as the teacher was trying to calm them down. My little girl was sitting in the center and quietly sifting through a book. After we had our warm reunion( deep hugs and loads of kisses - that's the one time when the little girl doesn't resist my flood of kisses; I make the most of my window of opportunity!) she took me to her book. It was Dora and the Crystal Kingdom. I asked her if she had read it. 

Then, I sat down and started reading it to her- Miss Haana on my lap. Soon all the other kids in the class came up to us to hear the story. And in no time it was story time! We were a small tight circle of kids, helping Dora find the missing crystals! And no one was running or shouting anymore. I had fun and so did everyone else. As soon as the story finished some of the kids quickly became cats or puppies (that's their regular game as well, they come over to me to be petted!) The little girl and I headed home.

Backout Plan

Gone are the days when the baby in the house would be driven by curiosity and new found mobility. She would stumble upon naughtiness, least realizing it; and certainly not meaning it. Now are the days when little Miss Haana is in the bold territory of fully realizing what would be naughty, but would still embark on the said curious and completely fearless pursuits. Parental warnings and no-s are usually drowned out by just pure ambition. The result is maddening (for us parents). 

And she has a blackout plan too.

These days when she gets into trouble, and I get upset, she immediately transforms from the feisty tiger to a purring kitty-cat. She leans forward to hug me; grabs my arm and kisses it ever so sweetly! And then falls into hugging me again. The first time this happened, I couldn't help but melt away; anger evaporated- I conceded, smiled and gave her kisses and hugged her back. The next time, same result. And the next too. Actually, I have to admit, it's been a very good track record for her! And I'm not even complaining. 

:)

Ps- she is a such good little kid. :) 

Usted Habla Espaneol?

Yesterday i found myself doing a familiar excercise - once back from work, wondering what dinner to fix, I opened the pantry door and browsed for possibilities. The little girl was right by my side and she started counting the jars. Only, it wasn't the usual one-two-three-four-five..

She said un-duos-thres-qatro-cinc-sis!

From browsing the pantry, I turned around and looked at her in amazement (where did she learn that from?). She, on the other hand, miss cool cat, finished counting, turned around and moved on to other games!  

A Dog or a Cat

Check out the image.
On Sunday to celebrate great spring weather, we made a last minute detour. Instead of going to a mall, we headed to the park and as usual the little girl was super happy to be outside, in the grass, running around! There were several people walking their dogs. Suhaana wished she could walk their dogs for them- and play with the four legged funny animals, laugh at them and generally make new friends of them. The dogs regarded her as a cute little tiny girl, and then walked on by.

Until, we ran into the pomeranian (see image). He was even more interesting than all the other dogs. She ran close to him and kept watching closely, till the dog (who paid no attention to her whatsoever ) passed her by. She pointed to the furry four legged and declared loud and clear-"Meaaaoooowwww"! Followed by a definitive finger-pointed "CAT" (just in case anyone didn't understand the 15-mile-long-Meow)!

All of us: us and the walker/owner of the dog were least expecting her to say what she did, and all of us burst out into peals of laughter!! She kept on Meaaaoooowwww-ing pointing to the pomeranian, who probably took that as an insult and spared not one look to my little girl!!

Of course I was too busy laughing to complain!

Hidalgo The Beautiful Horse

I saw the movie Hidalgo yesterday- a friend of mine privy to my ardent appreciation of Mr. Vigo Mortensen and also of horses was nice enough to lend the DVD.

I liked the movie. The details about the actual race were okay. But I loved the horse. I loved the part where in the end, the cowboy comes back and buys all the Indian's horses and frees them all. There's something about an unbridled wild horse that to me embodies the spirit of freedom (both mental and physical), and beauty. Maybe it represents a life I want to have but don't. Maybe it's just a myth and none of us really live a life of truly being free of our demons, vices, inhibitions and fears. And then I see these beautiful animals running free - mostly on screen but once in real - and that's what they represents to me. That something that beautiful actually exists.

While watching the movie it brought to mind two things -
One being my agenda of having Suhaana learn horse riding maybe when she's three (have to check minimum required age). This is the part where I thrust all my unfulfilled aspirations on Suhaana. And I need to do that before she's old enough I have a voice and say no! Well, she is already there in some ways. But I actually think she'll enjoy it as well. She loves the outdoors. She likes the animals she's known so far - dogs, ducks, cats. She was curious about the giraffe we saw at zoo last week. So I'm hopeful she'll like it.

The other thought was a moving target. I started wondering how do we want to bring up Suhaana. Should she grow up closer to nature than to TV. Should she grow up closer to amenities and interactions or some place more serene and slower - so she has time to know herself before getting on any group bandwagon. But what are the skills she needs to have to live in the world today and or tomorrow. Is it love of nature or is it the ability to network in an ever inter-connected web of social life? I wonder..

Whistle Blower

When a cat sits on a hot kettle, she learns never to sit on a hot kettle again. But what she would never do again also - is never sit on a cold kettle either. In this case the cat is me.

When Suhaana was even smaller, a whistle from the pressure cooker used to spook her out. She would scream and sob inconsolably. I would hold her in my arms, reason with her, it's only a cooker. Then, over to Raj and he would do much of the same. No - the whistle is the enemy. Ultimately the only way things would work is if Raj takes little Suhaana out for a walk and come back only when we're in a whistle-free home.

With time, we just stopped using the pressure cooker- no whistle means no problems. And the whistle scare just came up today when I was talking to a friend. And I realized its been a while since Suhaana heard the whistle because we just stopped using the cooker that whistles. So I wonder if she's grown out of her scare or not. Turns out I might be the one who's scarred enough from Suhaana's crying and scare, that I banished the whistle blower altogether.
I think an experiment to learn if the little baby's grown out of it may be in order some day. Not today. Tomorrow doesn't look good either. But some day.

Cat in the Playground

Today at the playground, Suhaana found a small green cap - of a soft drink bottle. I was watching her from a distance. She was pleased with her findings and flaunted it to me from the distance. Soon the trophy was headed to her mouth. I signaled "No eating!" - from where I was. I call it remote monitoring! She giggled - like this was our shared secret - we both knew this was not to be eaten. We both knew she didn't mean to eat it. We both knew its just too tempting to try to taste it! We both knew!

I called out- "Suhaana, that's a CAP". After a pause, she went "Miao".. And then again and again. More "Miao. Miao. Miao"!
I realized, she thought I said CAT!! It was hilarious because regardless, she kept on miao-wing for a while.