Dining Manners

Having lunch or Dinner around Tish is an ordeal. She wants to dive into bowls and play tambourine with cooker and ladles. The typical Kashmiri dinner style of eating on the floor on batpalav( a long cloth) dosen't help either , considering the easy access that it provides to a toddler to all the wares.

So each day we first feed her , then put her to sleep then eat as clandestinely as possible.

Day before yesterday I decided I had had it . So I spread the batpalav, placed all the bowls and dishes, and gave her a bowl to eat from .

And boy the drama the followed.

The girl squealed with delight , started eating with hands, claws , feet , face ; all the while exclaiming "bappu " "bappu "( rice ) ...what was hilarious was the way she copied her father's style of putting a morsel in her mouth and forgetting to chew when the songs' channel was changed on tv to accomodate her favorite song .She really felt all important .

Not that this was to continue for long . Yesterday I was informed curtly by my MIL that we would again have to use stealth operation style eating  since the little lady decided to pour the bowl on her head at lunch .

Fancy that !

tiiiiii

Its strange how little we know about our babies even though we would like to think they are our allotrophes.
I like playing peek-a-boo with my daughter...I hide behind curtains and jump out exclaiming " tiiii. tiii"

Sometimes she gives a bored laugh (huh! seen this before , nextt!!!! ) or a bland face (maybe if I stare enough she would leave these histrionics ).

So today in wee hours of the morning our lady woke up ,looking for entertainment ..I signalled to my husband to pretend we are sleeping so that the lady does back to dozing .
Not her plans.

The lady crawled up to me hid behind my blanket , jumped out and exclaimed "tii tii ".

Who could pretend sleeping after that?

Take a stand

So last night we were having our dinner . Tish had already been fed her bowl of broccoli masala oats and her grandpa was trying to unsuccessfully keep her off our "batpalav" while she howled and tried to attack bowls of rice and aloo matar.

This will start making sense to you when you understand a kashmiri dinner setting . All kashmiris, the hi-fi and the not so hi-fi spread a cloth on the carpet /bed and then keep all utensils on it and eat . We abhor dining tables. So now you can see how its easy for a kid to crawl and jump into a bowl and do as she pleases .

So back to the story , the kid was trying to get hold of stuff or at least pots and pans when for a moment she stood up..all on her own ..and we were all like ...hey look , she is standing , she is standing ...for around 5 seconds and then she plopped down on her granny's back .

I didn't know such small moments could get imprinted on your brain , but apparently they do 

brushy brushy baby

Honestly , I am not very particular about dental hygiene ....call it a bed-tea connoisseur's whim or laziness...but I brush my teeth once a day and that too since I have to .

But we don't let our mistakes and bad habits reflect on our kids; do we ?

So i started brushing Tish's teeth last week ...I was a bit skeptical since she didn't take well to bulb syringe and other fancy instruments that I have regularly pulled out to make things easier . I bought a finger toothbrush and approached her and with great deal of hesitation and inserted it in her mouth .

Huh ! she took to it immemdiately .

I guess its because her other teeth are sprouting and she wants her teeth brushed and brushed and brushed ... once i am done brushing she cries as she wants to continue doing it .

Seems this girl is not going to follow the dental laziness route like her mama

Those cute little pearls

And the baby has four small teeth now .....

crawling

The problem with most of the people in society is that they are always worried about others. Which is fine , really , as long as the worry is not based on comparisons.

 I hate comparisons...I have hated them all my life and have often done the opposite of what I was supposed to only because a comparison was made. That's why I decided early that I am never going to subject my kids to it ...no matter what .

But then...ah! the society .

After Tish recovered from a bout of dengue ...we kind of knew that she would meet her milestones on the later side.Which to me was fine since I am never bother about that milestone competition anyway ....but it irked me to no end when relatives would pop up with stupid questions like  , " Why doesn't Tish crawl yet ? My grandson has started running at 9 months ..." Well lady good for you !Please scoot out of my house and run around your said grandson.

So on her 9th month "birthday " , I was pleasantly surpised to  see Tish trying to crawl to a toy to claim it ..in my excitement ..I placed the toy here and there just to see her try to catch it while the lady in question got irritated with her mommies behavior and decided it wasn't worth all that work anyway .

Its a funny crawl..its like  how a serpent moves , supporting her body on her stomach ..whats called "pet ke bal chalna "....so long as she is mobile ...at least she would have fun .

Though the worry mongers have changed their  questions to "why does she crawl in such a strange manner ?My grandson used to ..... "

Flute Cut -Yo!

So it was that time again ....time to get Tish's hair cut .

Now before someone plans to get my goat... i didn't follow any customary mundan or take her to a temple for her first haircut ...she has hair like her momma that grows in all directions so I asked my MIL what should we do about it ...While the hairbands looked cute... the hair would still protrude from every nook and corner as if shouting ..look at me ! look at me !.
My MIL is a cool lady ..she said , " Apply your commonsense lady ,when hair grows, we cut it ."
What about Mundan,shagun etc..
" Aaj Eid hai ...must be a good day , ask your husband to cut her hair ..."

So that was her first haircut .

This time around though , it was difficult...The lady  is adept at throwing  her hands around and moves her head very swiftly ...the papa of the lady wanted to do the honours again since last time everyone went "aaawwww....kitna cute haircut hai kahaan se karwaya ".

So hubby started cutting her hair while i brought out my bansuri (I kid you not) and started playing to her ...she held her head straight and just looked and looked at me (and the flute ) and her haircut was a cakewalk ...
except for a few jiggy-jaggy hair which hubby could make no sense of and was too scared to cut since it seemed it was very near to the scalp.

So that's what its now ...flute cut ...seems next time I would have to bring out my veena .