A house with kids

has Donald Duck and Kangaroo in their beds

has diapers and coloring books in their shelves

has plastic fish, duck and frog in the buckets in their bathroom

has stroller, skateboard, cycles in their car park.

and balls of all shapes and sizes all over.

D D and D D

Demanding Daughter is the one who wants her dad's specs and cries everytime it is hidden away from her.
Doting Dad is the one who gets the glasses removed from that frame and fitted into a new one but still wears the old frames without glasses so that the daughter can grab it and play safely with it.

Tunmun gets her favourite toy and Vibhu gets a bill of 3500/-
I did not know that such a big man could be wrung around such a tiny finger.

Conversation with 3.5 year old

Conversation as it happened between Venky and Vibhu, on the way to Venky's school bus pick up point at 7.30 am

Venky and Vibhu meet our next door neighbor who is walking his dog.
"Papa, I am not afraid of that dog"
"Wow, you are a very brave boy Venky!"
"Papa, do you know why I am not afraid of the dog?"
"Because you just ate your breakfast and you are strong now?"
"No, because uncle is holding the dog's leash. It cannot bite me!"

A few houses down the line
"Papa, I am not afraid of this dog too."
"Why?"
"Because it is behind the gate of that house, it cannot come out and bite me."

Okey.. Vibhu gets the pattern now. Still more houses down the line, they come across a house with a pet parrot. The parrot's cage is hanging in the balcony.
"Papa, I am not afraid of that parrot too!"
"Because it is inside the cage?"
"Noooooo Papa! Because it is HERBIVOROUS !!" 

Tunmun has her way

Grab, grab, grab

and Sitting up and grab, grab, grab again.

Highest on the hit list is Vibhu's specs. She gets angry if Vibhu takes it off before picking her up. Today, Vibhu was rocking her to sleep. After she had closed her eyes for a while, Vibhu put his specs back. Tunmun opened her eyes momentarily and in her half slumber state grabbed it!

My girl sure knows what she wants. Signs of tough time in store for us!

Bedtime Story

There was a poor but honest woodcuter. One day as he was cutting a branch of a tree, his axe slipped from his hand and fell into the river underneath. The woodcutter did not have money to buy another axe, so he started crying. The river god took pity on the woodcutter and appeared with a gold axe.

"Is this your axe?"

"No", said the woodcutter.

 The river god came back with a silver axe.

"Is this your axe?"

"No", said the woodcutter.

The river god now came back with the woodcutter's axe

"Yes. this is my axe", said the woodcutter.

The river god was impressed with the woodcutter's honesty and gave him the gold and silver axe too.

Vibhu - "Venky, what is the moral of this story?"

Venky - "That we should be careful when we cut trees"

Rock Star Indeed

A few days ago, we had a childrens' psychologist's lecture in Venky's school (Hi -Fi school, yeah!).  Vibhu attended the session as I had to stay with Tunmun. The counsellor talked about 3 main issues with kids of this age (3 - 4 years).

1. Eating problems - Nopes, not my kid.  He does fuss a little during dinner time, but that is more because he does not like eating rotis in particular. Venky is able to have a balanced diet over the day with cereals, veggies, apple and egg. Not to forget 3 glasses of milk :)

2. Hyperactivity - This means highly active destructive kids. Venky can probably be classified as super active but not destructive. He loves to run and jump around but is never on a breaking spree. He also cleans up after the play

3. Possesiveness - Big NO for Venky. Venky is always ready to give away even his last piece of chocolate. If anything, I am worried about his excess philanthrophy :)

So Vibhu just sat silent through the whole session while other parents put forth their problems. Later, he narrated the experience to me with a lot of pride. We have a rock star indeed! :-)