Super Duper Cool

I think, she got this from her grandparents. Everything is either super-duper big, or super-duper cold, or super-duper yummy for this super-duper girl.

K for konfused

A confession: I've been trying to get Summy to learn to read for the past two years, even though I would never have admitted it. I'm for education with no pressure. I mean, what difference is it going to make in a couple of years whether she reads now or not?

But somehow, I expected her to be an early reader. I bought her leappads, workbooks, beginning reader books and so on.

It reminds me of the time when I was little and tried to teach my cat to sing: Sa re ga ma..... (sadly, this is not a joke. I even thought my cat was learning to sing, slowly but surely.)

Summy takes special pleasure in watching me trying to explain the rules of phonics to her. I'm a terrible teacher, though I didn't know that before.

So she says, "E says A? No, A says A."

I say "A says Ah."

"Oh."

"No, O says Oh."


There are a lot of sounds that I can't explain to her, but C and K are the best.

She says, "K for kat!"

I say, "No, C for cat!"

"K says kh! too."

"But C is for cat."

"Why?"

"......."

"C for ckitchen!"

And so on. She gets C and K wrong (or maybe, right) with a naughty smile everytime. "K for Kake", "C for Ckite", "K for Kandy" (Note to @: You involved in this?).

At this point, I give up. Her teachers will teach her when they teach her, and they'll teach her the right way. No big deal - if she doesn't learn to read in preskool, she will learn it in Ckindergarten.

The Best Ears of our Lives

Sometimes I regret it that Summy is growing up too fast, but that's rare.
I see baby videos of her and want that innocence again, but then there is always something wonderful about the age she's at right at that moment.

I can't get enough of whatever adorable stage she is in at any time. She's young enough to have that cute little voice, and say innocent things and ask innocent questions in it.

She walks around with a cell phone to her ear and whispers"Shh! Don't interrupt. I'm talking to somebody and it's 'portant!"

When I ask her to move over to check my email at the computer, she says, "I'm very very very busy doing 'portant work. You can do the computer later, okay?"

When her Barlin' says she doesn't need three q-tips because she doesn't have three ears, she says, "Yes, I have three ears. In March I will have four ears." (She'll be four years, not four ears old in March, and is being a smart aleck).

I need to get a recorder and record some of the things she says, so I don't forget them thirty minutes later.

Summy Bunch

A few days ago, I stood in the middle of the house and yelled "Banana!" Summy answered, "Yes, Mama." Only when Kiran pointed it out did I realize that that was a little strange.

I call her so many different names that she answers to any name I call her. She instinctively knows when I'm talking about food, when I'm just talking to myself, and when I'm calling her.

I've called her "Banana Bunch", "Sweet Tomato", "Hunny Pie", "Potato Muffin", and lots of other things besides, and she just takes it sweetly.

But some names make her indignant. "Puppy" or "Kitten" offend her, and she says "I'm not a puppy. I'm Sameera!" Who knows why she doesn't mind being a pumpkin potato or a blueberry muffin, but considers Bunny or Kitten a slur?

Yesterday an uncle called her "Sammy". Not Summy (to rhyme with tummy), but Sammy (to rhyme with clammy). She said very seriously, "No, I'm not Sammy. Call me Sameera."

To her, adding "bunch" to anything makes it loving. She even asked me sometimes to call her "Honey Bunch" when she wants to feel reassured. She's called us "Mommy Bunch" and "Daddy Bunch" too.

Which reminds me of when she affectionately told me with a hug "You are my Darlin'." And then "Daddy is my Barlin' because he's a boy."