Monday, July 24, 2006

Words

Summy's vocabulary has grown with her, though it's muddled sometimes.

"Washclotheser" is the washing machine.

"Hopgrasser" is grasshopper.

"My hair is all sparkled." (when the wind blew her hair about)

"It's all nooshed." (again about her wind-tousled hair) I don't think nooshed is in the dictionary, but you know what she meant :)

Thursday, July 13, 2006

The Zoo

The day after the aquarium experience, Summy and I went to the zoo with my cousins and her cousins. Getting there was easy, because I didn't drive. Summy enjoyed being in their car.

On a side note, again I had mixed feelings about this trip. I don't like zoos very much, and in our last zoo visit the animals didn't look happy at all. But we went anyway because I knew Summy would enjoy an outing with her cousins.

It was noon when we got there, so the kids had a bite to eat. Then there were carousel rides, pony rides, a playground, and so on right outside the zoo entrance, to be covered before we got into the zoo. We made fast time, and entered the zoo at around 2:30. (two and a half hours not bad, eh?)

We went to the dinosaur exhibit first. This consisted of a narrow trail through the woods with robotic dinosaurs placed at intervals. The first one was about waist high, and Summy insisted on staying far away, but looked with interest. The second one was roaring a little, so she clung to me. The third one was large - large. Summy hid her face in my legs and started to whimper. The next one was around a bend and again - big. And close. Summy started to cry. I knew she had all she could take. I didn't want to turn around and risk missing the others in the group. So I carried her and walked fast to get through the trail.

Bad idea! As we walked further, the dinosaurs by the trail started to get larger and more ferocious looking. Poor Summy was screaming when we finally walked past T-Rex and out of the exhibit. Then she instantly calmed down and was herself again.

It was puzzling how scared she was of these dummy dinos until I remembered a previous conversation with her.

"Mommy, Are we going to the zoo?"

"Yes, the zoo has animals in it."

"Just pretend ones."

"No, Summy, the animals in the zoo are real. Not pretend ones."

Doh! How was I to know there was going to be a dinosaur exhibit? That must have been pretty scary to Summy if she thought those huge, roaring dinosaurs so close to us were real. I explained to her too late that they were just robots.

The rest of the visit went smoothly - the animals did not look too unhappy, and there were no lions or tigers in cages. I think she liked the gibbons best. A baby one was clinging on to its mother while the mother was swinging on the trees. Awwww!

I think all the children had a good time most of the time. When asked about it, her smart cousin Aditya said "It was fun, but it would be funner if we went to Sameera's house." So the fun went on into the evening, and though there were no pictures taken, I think the day was memorable.

At bedtime, Summy's own (now predictable) response to whether she had a good time was "Yes. I don't want to go to the zoo again." :) Amen.

The good news is that she is still eager for another outing or visit with her cousins, just as long as it's not to the zoo.

Aquarium

This was two weekends ago. Summy and I visited the New England Aquarium.

I was very nervous to drive a car into Boston (the last time I did, I took forty five minutes to get to Boston, half an hour to find the place I had to go, and an hour driving around for a parking spot). It turns out I was nervous for a good reason, because we got lost.

It is more flustering to be lost with Summy, because questions and comments keep coming non-stop.

"Why are we in a tunnel?"

"Why are you turning that way?"

"Where is the uckbarium?"

"Red light, that means stop." (Okay, that one was helpful)

"Why are we turning around?"

"Why are we going in the tunnel again?"

"Is the uckbarium the other way now?"

"We need a map."

And so on. I told her that she had to be quiet for a while, or we'd never find the aquarium. She sulked in the back seat while I found the way (and found that we had passed the Aquarium two times while looking for it).

She was fascinated by the water and the boats on the wharf more than the aquarium itself. She did like the penguins, the seals, the giant turtles, and the jelly fish. The acquarium looked crowded, and I'm not talking about the people. I wish the fish had some more space, but then maybe then don't really need much space, even in the ocean. I don't know. I think the seals must be bored just swimming in circles all day long. I'm a wet mop, I always find a dampening angle on things. On the brighter side, the turtles didn't seem to care where they were as long as they got their naps.

Once we had lunch in their restaurant (no, I didn't see them serving seafood), we walked along the wharf and had ice cream.

We found the way back home easily enough. And at night, just before sleeping, Summy said those words which make it all worthwhile.

"Mommy, I don't want to go to the uckbarium again."

You read that right. :) But luckily, she does still want to go back to the wharf and get on a boat - so maybe whale watching next time?

Camping In

Today Summy's classroom has a sleepover/camping theme, and they asked us to bring a sleeping bag if we had one. We didn't have one, but we went and bought one as there has been some talk of sleepovers with her cousins lately.

So ofcourse, last night she wanted to sleep in the brand new sleeping bag. Not alone though, and we opened it up and spread it on the floor of our bedroom. We read an Angelina (the ballerina) story and then wondered where the Angelina doll was (we hadn't seen it in a while). Then it was time to turn the lights out.

Oh, it was one of those nights. We lay down at nine, and at ten thirty she was still fiddling around. Around then, I put her in the bed with Kiran and went off to do a little reading by myself. I came back to bed in the dark, and when I was climbing in I saw a little hand in my way. Summy was comfortably spread out in my place. There was about four inches of space on the end of the bed where I could have fit in, but I decided to sleep on her bag instead.

That should be enough to know who's royalty in the house, and who serves - there she was, a little three-feet-long person with her hands and legs all over the big bed and managing to occupy an entire half of it. And here I was, on the floor, on a small pink ballerina sleeping bag, and trying to fit under a blanket one third my size. The only thing that would have made this look funnier (to me, anyway) would have been Kiran sleeping in the ballerina bag.

But we all slept well, and I didn't awake until I heard a shout "Angelina!". Summy had woken up, and from the big bed she had spotted her Angelina doll under her little bed. Yawn! All's well that ends well.

A Milestone

First Smile, first laugh, first steps, first words, and now...

First wink! Two days ago she made a joke, and winked at me. I laughed, so she winked again. And again. And again. She winked for her Daddy when he came home. She winked for her Babai and Pinni. I just hope she doesn't wink at the wrong place or wrong time.

I wonder what's next - whistling? I hope it is, because I never did master the fine art of whistling (my education is incomplete).

Wednesday, July 05, 2006

Darnedest Thing #3: Colorful Language

Summy was getting ready for bed, and trying to make small talk so she could delay bedtime a little.

She said, "Mommy, I have some problems."

I was surprised (an understatement) - "What kind of problems, Summy?".

I imagined all kinds of things - school, boo-boos, potty accidents, sicknesses, at the same time wondering if she really knew what "problem" meant, before she gave her puzzling answer.

"Brown problems."

"Brown problems?"

"Brown problems."

"What do you mean, you have brown problems?"

"And when I go to school, I have blue problems. Sienna has pink problems too."

I'm still not sure what she was talking about - was this about problems or em-and-ems?