Rubberback and More

The other day, Summy pretended to be the mommy while I was forced to be the baby being put to sleep. When she was tired of the game, she said "Now I'll be the baby and you be the rubberback."

Rubberback (noun): one who rubs somebody's back or tummy, in order to put them to sleep.

I do add those "ie"s to the end of words to make them sound cute - doggie, fishie, froggie, etc. When a car next to us honked last week, Summy said "Did you see that car-rie?" When I said yes, she said "Did you hear that car-rie make the sound-ie?"

Jujubes

This happened a few months ago - how did I forget to put it in Summy's journal?

We were reading a small board book about fruit at bedtime, when we first saw the now legendary Jujube.

She found the name "Jujube" very funny, and it started to seem funny to me too.

After the lights were out, we were singing the alphabet song, and when we came to J, she said "J for Jujube" and started to laugh again. I laughed too. It was one of those things, hard to explain why it was that funny.

We laughed helplessly with tears down our faces, and until our jaws hurt. Then we looked away from each other because even looking at each other would have triggered another bout of laughter. We slept with an occasional suppressed rumble from one of us, setting off the other one to rumble too.

Now we try not to talk about explosive topics like Jujubes at bedtime.

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 :)

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).

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?

How much is that doggie in the window?

That's one of Summy's songs -

How much is that doggie in the window
The one with the waggly tail
How much is that doggie in the window
I do hope that he is for sale

We went to the mall last weekend, and ofcourse we stopped outside the petstore, where four rabbits were eating, drinking, and sleeping in a display window. After observing them for a little while, Summy asked to go in and look at the puppies.

Have you ever seen the happy puppies in one of these pet stores? It is a nightmare. The pet store in our mall is especially notorious for selling pets from puppy mills, and for having sold sick puppies. I don't know about the truth behind any of those stories - but I do know what I see.

I see about fifteen puppies of different breeds, each (sometimes two of them) in a cage that seems about a foot square. Maybe the cages are bigger, but definitely not big enough for them to walk around in.

I see the floors of their cages, not solid floors, but mesh ones that cannot be very comfortable to stand, sit, or lie down on. I believe they do this for easy cleaning of the cages.

I see their puppy dog eyes eagerly waiting for a child to "try" one of them, so they can get out and play for a little while. (I have heard that they get to stay out of their cages and roam the store in the night - maybe, but they still spend the major part of the day in the cage).

I can never come out of this store not feeling depressed, and I don't understand the people who buy their dogs here. It is a prison for the innocent in the center of a mall in "the land of the free".

Summy said, "Mommy, I want to bring this puppy home.", pointing at a little one (her first request of the kind).

I want to bring him home too, Summy, I want to bring all of them home. But if we bring them home, more puppies will fill those cages. (Many people buy a puppy from these stores because they cannot bear to leave the puppy they fell in love behind in the cage).

The way to stop this cycle is to not buy pets from a pet store. If we want to rescue an animal, it will be best to adopt one from a shelter.

The Lonely Goatherd

Just putting down the lyrics to Summy's new favorite song from Sound of Music so I can learn them.

High on a hill was a lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Loud was the voice of the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

Folks in a town that was quite remote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
Lusty and clear from the goatherd's throat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

[the Children:]
O ho lay dee odl lee o, o ho lay dee odl ay
O ho lay dee odl lee o, lay dee odl lee o lay

[Maria:]
A prince on the bridge of a castle moat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
[Kurt:]
Men on a road with a load to tote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

[the Children:]
Men in the midst of a table d'hote heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
[Maria:]
Men drinking beer with the foam afloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

One little girl in a pale pink coat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
[Brigitta:]
She yodeled back to the lonely goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

[Maria:]
Soon her Mama with a gleaming gloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hee hoo
What a duet for a girl and goatherd
Maria and the Children:
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

[Maria and the Children:]
Ummm (ummm) . . .
Odl lay ee (odl lay ee)
Odl lay hee hee (odl lay hee hee)
Odl lay ee . . .
. . . yodeling . . .

[Child:]
One little girl in a pale pink coat heard
[Maria:]
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hoo hoo
[Child:]
She yodeled back to the lonely goatherd
[Maria:]
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

[Maria:]
Soon her Mama with a gleaming gloat heard
Lay ee odl lay ee odl lay hmm hmm
What a duet for a girl and goatherd
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

[Maria and the Children:]
Happy are they lay dee olay dee lee o . . .
. . . yodeling . . .
Soon the duet will become a trio
[Maria:]
Lay ee odl lay ee odl-oo

[Maria and the Children:]
Odl lay ee, old lay ee
Odl lay hee hee, odl lay ee
Odl lay odl lay, odl lay odl lee, odl lay odl lee
Odl lay odl lay odl lay

[the Children:]
HOO!

Can you say that again?

Yesterday, Summy took her little doll (the mommy from the doll house) to school. When I picked her up, I asked, "Do you want to bring the Mommy doll home?". She ignored me and went out the classroom. In the gym, she stopped to play with some toys, and I said "Is the Mommy in your cubby? Do you want to bring her home?" She giggled and made silly noises with a toy. As we walked out of the daycare center, I said, "Don't you want to get the Mommy?". She stopped to look at an ant on the driveway. She got in the car, buckled up, I got in the car, started it, and she said "Uh oh. I forgot the Mommy in my cubby. We need to go get it"

What would you do? I said No.

Summy said "But I want to get the Mommy."

"We can get her tomorrow. Mommy doll will enjoy some quiet time to herself (just like Mommy did on Mothers Day)."

"But I want the Mommy."

"I don't want to talk about it anymore."

"Mommy, turn around. I want to go pick up the Mommy."

On the way home, she said "I waaant to get the Mommy." thirty two times. I'm not exaggerating, I counted. After the thirty second time, luckily it seemed funny to me (these things seldom seem funny at the time), so I started to laugh. After trying to be extremely offended, Summy started to laugh too. After we both calmed down, she said "Thank you for cheering me up, Mommy."

I said, "Oh, You don't have to thank me for that, honeybunch."

"Thank you for cheering me up, Mommy."

"You're welcome, Summy."

"Thank you for cheering me up, Mommy."

"......."

"Thank you for cheering me up, Mommy."

(Thank you for the entertainment, Summy.)

Is she a terror or am I?

When I told Summy to brush her teeth and I heard her running the water in the sink, I knew nothing good was going on in there. But I was washing dishes and I left her be. Five minutes later, I went into the bathroom to check and was relieved to see no flooding, and no entire toilet paper rolls being unwound (ala Winkie) to try to sop up the flood.

Instead, she was washing her toothpaste tube under the running water. When she saw me, she panicked (poor little thing - am I such a monster?) and started to babble.

"Mommy, I'm not being naughty. The toothpaste was dirty so I was just washing it. I doing such a good job. I am grown up, I'm not naughty like babies anymore. I was just..." and so on.

Little sweetie pie.

Summy in Wonderland

"Watch your step as you climb out of your teacup"

"Please remain seated until the barn stops spinning and comes to a complete halt..."

"Keep your hands, feet and head inside your fish at all times."

All phrases you're unlikely to ever hear, except possibly when drunk, or...

when at Story Land!

That was where we went for our long weekend. Story Land is an amusement park especially geared toward the two-to-ten crowd. At Story Land, nobody bats an eyelid when ride operators say things like the above - the title was from a ride called "The Mad Hatter's Tea Party", the second from "The Crazy Barn", and the last from "The Flying Fish".

We spent a lot of time on the rides, sometimes almost a tenth as much time as we spent waiting in line to get on those rides! This was our third year at Storyland, and we decided that next year, we'd do something that involves less waiting and more doing.

But Summy had fun most of the time. She loved the crazy barn best (this barn shoots upward on a pole, then spins while going up and down like crazy). It seems she especially enjoys those rides that involve more people, when she can smile at and laugh and yell with them.

She is more adventurous than we are - she wanted to go in a really nauseating spinning turtle ride. Last year Kiran went with her, but this time he knew better. Last year, I was standing by as the kids came out of the ride crying, saying "That was awful", and gagging. So I wouldn't go in that ride either. She said, "Then I can do it all by myself." because she saw some of the big kids do it. I'm sure she can, but she'll have to wait.

She was sized up at all the rides - really. Many rides required kids to be atleast 36" tall, and she is about 36.5". She was not at all offended when people stopped her to measure her.

It is always nice to be in a place where everything is kid-friendly. For example, the bathroom policy - questions like "Is that lady going to potty for peepee or poopoo?" are ignored. The noise policy - yelling, screaming mandatory. And so on.

The food was "kid-friendly" too, meaning there there is a strictly enforced ban on vegetables (If you are caught smuggling veggies in in a picnic basket, you have to go on the spinning turtle ride. This explains why there is a line for this ride even though nobody seems to actually enjoy it). Once we saw a farmstand style snack kiosk with pictures of corn, carrots, and apples on the outside - but all the fruit in the menu was available only inside a pie or a pastry (absolutely no veggies, ofcourse!). We lived on ice cream, fried dough, and french fries the whole day. Summy was craving rice and vegetables by the time we were back home.

To really really make it kid-friendly, the gift store door has a sign that says, "Please finish eating your food or smoking your cigarettes before entering the store." That's right, you little rascally toddlers and preschoolers, put out your Marlboros before coming in. There was even a toddler sized ash tray to make it more convenient for the shorter smoker. Ha ha, no, I am 'kid'ding about the ash tray. But the sign on the door is real. It seemed incongruous in Story Land. If a grown-up even thought of going into the kiddie gift store with a lit up cigarette, should s/he be in Story Land in the first place?

We stayed until Summy was so tired that she was just going through the motions of getting on the rides. She even tried to lie down on the carousel horse. When we decided to leave, and she just went through the motion of saying "I want to stay. I don't want to go.", then cooperatively climbed into the car seat and was asleep half a second later.

The night before, we had stayed at an inn right by the Saco river. We went to look at the river which had crystal clear water, allowing us to see every grain of sand and every little pebble on the riverbed. In Dora speak, it was the "icy cold river". Summy had fun exclaiming "How can we get to the other side?", then pointing to the boat, just like Dora. (there was a stack of canoes, oars, and lifejackets right beside the river, that delighted her).





A nice holiday - now we are looking forward to the next one.

Everyday is a surprise

There are some things that we do daily, but it seems "we" are still not aware of that.

For instance, this morning.

Me: Summy, time to brush our teeth.

Summy: I brush my teeth already.

Me: That was yesterday.

Summy: (silence)

Me: Let's go brush our teeth.

Summy: (surprised) Again?

Seeds of Doubt

Summy got a little tiny pot to plant flower seeds in last week. She had lovingly put some soil in the plant (the rest went on her shirt), watered it everyday, and three tiny shoots had come up.

She also showed great interest in getting a bird-feeder after Kiran told her about it. So we went to the store to buy a bird-feeder. She pointed at the bags of seed in that section and asked me what it was.

I said, "Bird seed."

"It grows birds?"

"Yes, honey, it helps birds grow big and strong".

Kiran and I went on looking at the garden stuff for a minute.

"It grows birds?"

"Uh huh."

"And we give them water?"

Then I saw her looking at the bird seed in awe and saw that she had the wrong idea entirely. :) She was picturing planting bird seeds in the soil, watering them, and watching them grow into little birds.

Ha ha ha! Sure, if flower seeds grow flowers, why wouldn't bird seed grow birds?

Such a pity I had to tell her the truth.

Mothers Day

First, I acknowledge the bestest mom in the world - you know who, Amma.

For Mothers Day, I asked for a day off from being a mother :) So on the Saturday before Mothers Day, I was left free to do what I wanted. I didn't hear a "Mommy" or an "Appi" the whole day. After a leisurely start, I went to Borders and spent a couple of hours browsing through books. I bought myself a book, then went to Subway for lunch. Over a sandwich, I read my book for an hour or so. Momminess being in my blood, I went grocery shopping after that. But alone.

When I go for groceries with Summy, you know what it's like. First we have to pick a cart, then we have to buckle in, and about 30 seconds later, we have to unbuckle and get off again to take a closer look at the balloons in the store. Then we have to stop at each section while Summy holds the bag open for me while I put the veggies and fruits in. Once we get to the berries, it's a little easier, because we are a berry monster. We want to sit in the cart again and eat our berries right out of the box (now you'd know why all our shirts are blue, purple and pink). After we load up our cart and check out, it's finally time for - going potty ofcourse! (all those berries) Then we have to beg somebody to keep an eye on our cart while we go upstairs and find the bathroom.

So it was different even to do grocery shopping by myself. Then I ran out of things to do, because it was pouring outside. I went home, but there was nobody at home! So I sat around for another hour, eating almonds and reading my book, then to the mall. At the mall, at about 8 PM, I went to a movie ("Thank You For Smoking"). Then I drove back home, thoroughly sick of being by myself, and found Summy was already asleep.

When Mothers Day came on Sunday, Summy gave me a card she had picked out, a pretty little necklace that she and her Daddy got for me, and said "Happys (sic) Mothers Day!". I was happy to spend the rest of the day at home, and Summy and I played a lot.

I forgot, on Friday I got a card from Summy that she made in preschool, a piece of paper with her picture on it and her quote on the bottom "I love my mommy because she plays with me everyday!".

Sounds familiar....

Click here. Go on, it's just a comic strip.

Too many detours

It has been brought to my attention by an alert reader (Thank you!) that my last few posts have had nothing to do with bringing up baby. It started when I used Summy's name once or twice to sneak in an entry about a completely different topic. Then I gave up all pretense, and have been ranting about things unrelated to Summy.

This is natural. Summy's growing up, so I've come out of my motherhood cocoon to think non-Summy thoughts and even post about them sometimes. But this is supposed to be Summy's baby journal.

So from now on, all posts that don't belong here will go to my other blog.

Yes, that alert reader was me. Who else?

Edited to add: I've deleted the last few entries and pasted them here.

Darnedest Thing #2

Yesterday, we attended the last of Summy's classmates' birthdays for this year.

In the car, Summy said

"I'm three years old."

Me: "Do you know how old Mommy is?"

"Hmmmm.... Three years old?"

The strange thing is - she was right, as long as you don't count the zeroes :) Three, thirty, what does it matter?