Varsha seems to enjoy talking! She also seems to be framing big sentences with ease!!! She has every single thing that we tell her recorded in her memory and plays it back to us at appropriate times

These days, she wants to be part of every conversation/discussion that we have. Yesterday, while we were having one such serious conversation, Varshu stood right in the middle of us and started to talk non-stop, raising and dipping her voice just as we do, waving her hands, pointing her fingers at every possible direction, using all the words possible and adding new words that she just picked up from our conversation. My mother, who was talking all the while, stopped conversing and we all watched her silently. Suddenly, realizing that she was a solo performer, she became very shy and ran away giggling. We all had a hearty laugh

On a recent visit to our granny’s place Varsha was gifted a smiley ball. A small, soft yellow ball and she liked it instantly. She plays with it quite often and when we are around she expects us to play with her. Yesterday, as she threw the ball, it went rolling under the fridge. Varsha realized that the ball wasn’t at her reachable distance and there is no way she could reach it with her small hands. We were all expecting her to turn to us for help, but to our surprise, this little one picked a stick from the balcony and gently pushed the ball out with it. On seeing this, my sister said “hey look! It’s amazing from where these kids learn all this”. Varsha, attentive (extra attentive to appreciations) as ever, pushed the ball again under the fridge and pushed it again with the stick for us to appreciate her once more. Ah ha!!! , these kids fish for compliments too!

We bought couple of activity toys for Varsha. One among them was a wooden puzzle, to teach her “Shapes”. We taught her the shapes and she picked it up real fast. One evening, she came running to her mother with a Dairy milk chocolate bar. She wanted her mother to unwrap it for her. And as her mother unwrapped it, Varsha pointed the bar and said “ma, rectangle”. Relative thinking???!!!

Varsha is not one of those chubby babies. She lost all her baby weight when she turned one and hasn’t gained much ever since (How can she, anyway??? She hardly eats anything). So, my uncle (my mom’s younger brother) used to call her “Arapazham”, an adjective in Tamil to describe a weightless baby.

It so happened that this Uncle visited our place one evening. Varsha was very glad to see him. She played with him for sometime, answered all his questions and then got busy with her own pretend plays, while my mom and uncle were chatting. After sometime, the calling bell rang and my younger sister entered the house. Varsha immediately turned to her and said “Viji, inga paar, “Arapazham mama vandhirukka!” (Viji, Look! Arapazham uncle has come!) The next 10 minutes the room was filled with an uproar of laughter

Varsha loves to be surrounded by people always and loves it even more when there are lots of visitors at home. She is also very demonstrative when it comes to expressing her love. She will hug, kiss, express her love in all possible ways.

Of late, she has learnt to sing “I love you, you love me, we are happy family”, a favourite Barney number and sings it quite often. While singing this song, she would go around hugging everyone in the room.

And it’s a real sight to watch! :-) 

Varshu, like many other toddlers, is inquisitive about anything and everything! She has learnt about many things on her observation and I am sharing here two incidents that I really enjoyed witnessing :-)

A week back, while Varshu was busy doing something, I shot a picture of her on our digicam. Varshu, like usual, wanted to see it immediately. I showed it to her and asked her “who is this?” (one of those usual question that we ask her). She didn’t reply, but was merely starting at her picture. I asked her again and since I got no reply from her, I took back the digicam. She again made a request to show her the picture. I responded saying, “Varsha, I just showed you. Didn’t I? What is it that you want to see again?” Saying this, I showed the picture to her again and this time, after seeing the picture, Varsha ran back to the same place (where the picture was taken), stood in the same pose and said “Varsha inga ninnundirukka!” (Varsha is standing here!) :-)

The second one is about her observations, while preparing her favourite “Complan” and “Maggi Noodles”. Varshu, would always insist on carrying her, while making these dishes for her and every time tirelessly she would point to those ingredients and question us “ma, adhu enna ma?” (What’s that?). It’s been a regular routine and once I casually asked her “Varsha, what all do u need to make Complan?” She immediately said “complan, pal (milk), chakkara (sugar)” :-). Likewise, one day, while preparing maggi for her, she was there eagerly watching me. I added noodles to the boiling water and before even I could take the taste maker, she said, “ma, salt poduma” (add salt) :-)

Not a bad learner, ain’t she? :)

Last Thursday, our neighbour informed us about the school admissions and the application forms being issued thereof. While discussing this, Varshu interrupted us and our neighbour asked her “Varsha, will you go to school?” Varshu’s response was a spontaneous “Yes”.

Later, that evening, I went out and Varshu came along with me. While returning back, Varshu asked me “School-ku pogalama?” (Shall we go to school?). I was curious to find if she knew anything at all about school or if it was just the impact of our neighbour’s question. So, I posed her a question:

Varshu, "Who and what would be there in a school?" For which Varshu responded with “Akka ellam iruppa” (many sisters would be there).

I wanted to probe further, so I asked her, “What else would be there?” “Book” was her diligent reply. It was my turn again and I asked her “And?” she thought for a while and added “ABCD”. Finally, when I asked her “Who will teach ABCD?”; “Teacher!” was her instant reply.

Hmmm…I think Varsha is slowly warming up to the idea of school. Isn’t she? What do you think? :-)

Varshu has the habit of saying “Aiyo” (an exclamatory word in Tamil, to express dismay or distress) and uses this word quite often. I wanted her to quit using that, and therefore, I suggested that she use “Oh God” instead. Every time, when she habitually says “Aiyo”, I correct her with “Oh God”.

Last Friday, Varshu had a fall and she cried aloud saying “Aiyo, Aiyo”. On hearing this, her mother said, “Varshu, don’t say “Aiyo" How many times have we told you?” Varshu stopped for a second, listened to her, and then continued to cry, but this time saying “Oh God!!!!”

Last Saturday evening, while we were clued to the TV, Varsha came to her mom with a request for “jelly” (a sweet food gel). There were only 4 left and she wanted all the four to be given to her. Her mom refused, being aware of the fact that Varshu would only waste it. This little one was persistent and her mom had no choice, but to give her all the four, to keep her shut for a while.

After a while, she realised Varshu was going to make a mess, she tried to barter, but nothing worked. This little one wasn’t willing to part away with those jellies. Finally, I intervened and asked Varshu if she would give one to me, which she did very gladly. She gave me one and i popped it into my mouth. On seeing this, Varshu burst into tears and flung the rest of it all over. It was only then i realised that she had expected me to return it back to her. It took me a few minutes to distract her and to grab those scattered jellies. I gave it to her and said “Varshu, here are your jellies”. She gladly took it from me, had a look at those jellies, and asked me, “innonnu???” meaning “one more” in tamil. She was able to recognize that one out of four was missing. 

Varshu, even as a seven month old child, would look at things more than one in number and say “two, three…two, three” That was her way of recognizing and counting.... .

Varsha has been responding instinctively to music from her early months. These days, she seems to enjoy singing! It makes us wonder if she has inherited it from her mother, who always had an ear for music. Her mother used to spend time singing, almost daily, when she was pregnant with this little one.

And today, Varsha seems to be taking this activity of singing naturally, with little apparent effort. She has even picked up few lines from most of her mother’s favourite Carnatic songs and sings along with her. She seems to enjoy singing nursery rhymes and has most of it by heart. The most admirable part of it is that, she seems to be composing songs with her favourite tunes, with the words of her own! It feels wonderful to hear her sing! Above all, she makes us feel proud of her, for possessing such innate talent!

We want to nurture this gift of hers... any suggestions on how to go about it? What would be the right age to put a child onto formal music training?

Varsha turns 2 today! Looking back, two years have gone by so quickly, and the blessed event is still fresh in my memory and here it goes…

It was around 9:35 (9:38 to be more precise) on 9^th Nov 2004, when my sister entered the operation theatre. The Doctors suggested that she undergoes caesarian. We (that includes me, my dad & my eldest sis) were slightly disappointed as we had expected it to be a normal delivery. Also, this was the first grand child for my parents. Tension caught my mom, the moment my sister called home to inform that my second sis was to undergo a caesarian.

Tension gripped us too, as we watched her enter the Theatre.  Just as she entered, I got a message on my mobile from a very close friend of mine and it read “God gives things in 3 ways-he says yes & gives u what u want, he says ‘no’ & gives u something better, he says wait & gives u the best in his own time….keep smiling”. The message was really assuring and we felt the presence of God around us. Each of us was chanting some mantras that we knew and in a short while my eldest brother-in-law joined us in the hospital. I felt all the more comfortable after seeing him.

For sometime, we didn’t have a clue as to what was happening inside. At around 10:20 PM my brother-in-law was the first one to hear the baby cry and next was my dad. We started congratulating each of us and were really excited. From that very moment I had become the “Aunt” for the little one. Oh, there aren’t enough words to describe how excited we were! It was a wonderful moment…...a moment of joy!

After a while, the nurse came out with the little one wrapped in a white dhothi. She gave the little one to my eldest sis and said “here is your little mahalakshmi”. Pink, cute and delicate were the words which I thought were perfect to describe the little one. My sister thought “rojapu” was best to describe the baby. She was right in comparing the little one with the rose flower is what I thought. The nurse then took the baby back.

 For quite sometime the room was very noisy and we were busy calling our friends & relatives to inform them about the new born. My dad was really excited and overwhelmed; i could hear his voice choke as he spoke to some of our relatives. My brother-in-law, a silent spectator of the whole scene, was gleaming with joy!