Recycling

With an injured foot and no doctor appointment in sight, was working from home this morning.

The kids who do not have school the whole of this week were overjoyed that I was in the house, but saddened by the fact that daddy was locked inside a room and was in phone meetings for the entire morning.

At noon, Jr. and the little one were already fed and ready to go for their naptime.

LO : Daddy please stay at home. Don't go to office. If you are home I will huggie you more!
Me : Thanks da kuttyma, but I have to go to office. Only then I will get money.
Jr.: What if we give you money?
LO : Yeah. We will give you money. Then you can stay at home.
Me : Where do you guys have money?
Jr.: We have been saving the money and coins that mommy and grandma gave us!

They were so sweet. They gave up all the money they had in two ziploc bags, all 2 dollars and 43 cents of it!

Didn't have the heart to tell them "No, I don't want your money" or "it takes a lot more money for me to stay home with you guys".. and while all this was going through my mind Jr. chips in with

"Appa, if we keep giving you the money you give to us, then you don't have to go to work!"

Now, that sentence sent me reeling. According to Madras paati, aka my mom, some astrologer did predict that Jr. will become an accountant when she grows up. Chances are she is going to become one, and she will play an important part in the 2034 recession, which will be the biggest recession in recorded history!

With this concept of giving the same money back and forth multiple times, so many daddy's are already home permanently. So decided to go into a lecture on economics, job, money, time, daddy, kids, love etc. etc. and the kids gave me one glassy eyed look and ran away to grandma saying

"Paati, please come nap with us!"

Daddy escaped!

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Same Same but different

Conversation overheard:

Little One : What mammu (food) are you going to make?
Grandma : Rasam
Jr. : What about More (More in Tamizh is buttermilk!)
Grandma : A little confused because she thought Jr. is mentioning the english word "more" for more Rasam rice..

then while I feed the kids, Grandma decides to start a game..

Kids, lets find out other words that say the same thing, but mean different things in English and Tamizh!

Jr. : Poo !
Grandma : How? (me looking puzzled as well, How?)
Jr. : Poo Poo means two flowers in Tamizh (saying the word twice apparently counts as two flowers!) and Poo Poo means what we go in the bathroom!

we started laughing out loud and that is when the little one chipped in with

"I have another word.. I have another word"

As the equal opportunity daddy, I ask Jr. to keep quiet and say

"Okay LO, your turn now! Tell us." and the response?

Potty! It means grandma in Tamizh and bathroom in english!

Jr.'s mention of Poo Poo led the little one to think Potty and she made a connection with Paati vs. Potti!

Slight pronunciation difference.. but she gets points for being creative!

Now the question for the readers.

Is there a single word for this in the english dictionary? Same phonetically sounding word, that means different things in different languages?!

Let me know. In the meantime we will explore more such words and hopefully we will move away from the bathroom to living room related words!

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The past and the present

Just after picking up Jr. from school:

Jr. : There is a book fair in my school.

Me : When?

Jr. : You won't give me money anyways right!?

Me : Okay. This time, WILL give you some money.

Jr. : My teacher says I need some bills. like phone bills or something to buy the books.

Me : ????? I think she meant dollar bills.

Jr. : yes, right.. she said we can only bring dollar bills. no Indian bills, no Canadian bills either!

Me : (thinking...at least I tell Jr. no money to her face. disappointing the kid by giving foreign exchange is not right) She is right! You need dollar bills.

LO : (chips in from behind) how about Seattle bills?

Jr. : No silly. Only California bills!

Me : (laughing) Same bills in Seattle and California kids. It is the US Dollar!

Jr. thinks that people give us dollar bills when we finish shopping at the local grocery store! We use cards whenever we go buy gas, groceries, costco shop, etc.

The only time Jr. sees money change hands is when we ask for cash back after buying groceries, which usually is to buy tickets at the desi movie theater and Jr. never witenesses that transaction where we hand over the money! Took me a few days to understand why she thought that and explain the concept of money vs. cards.

We came home to another conversation

Jr. : Daddy is going to give me some money to buy books amma!

San : why? you have all the books you want from the library

Jr. : No. I want to buy some books to keep forever.

San : how much is he giving you?

Jr. : Ten dollars

San : You get four. Which book are you going to buy.

Jr. : this one (pulls a catalog and shows some spongebob squarepants book). I have already read it!

San : What ?! You should buy a book you have not read yet.

Jr. : I like that book. So I want to have it in our house.

(by now I am wondering where this is going to go, as we listen to the same CD over and over again.. maybe Jr. likes to read the same book over and over again?)

San : Why do you want to buy a book that you have already finished reading? Why don't you buy a new book?

Jr. : (realizing that she cannot argue her way out with mom, changes the tone)Actually I have only read the cover of that book and the first few pages. Haven't read it fully!

San : (now laughing) I didnt just become "____" (Voldemortage) without crossing six. I was six years old once too you know. You cannot fool me!

Jr. : (giggles and finally decides on a new book that was four bucks!)

Sometimes I am glad that my wife was six years old at one point and remembers everything. She seems to be more ready for a growing Jr. than I am!

We do buy them books, every now and then. They got books for Christmas presents, birthday presents, when they really pestered us to buy something at the Mall recently, etc.

Believe it or not, we are allowed to check out, upto 21 books at a time in the Library and they have a reallllllly nice collection of young reader books and you can keep them for upto 3 weeks. Also, Jr. has been going through 3-4 books a day in the last three weeks as part of a reading program and is really hooked.

My best memories of college or school are at the Library!

When we were in middle school every wednesday we would get to check out one book and return it the following wednesday. Couldn't wait for that day and we would stand in line after school, to get the next 3 investigators, hardy boys etc.. and before you know it, it was Jules Verne, Conan Doyle and Earl Stanley Gardner and we exited high school!

The BHU library was just plain amazing. You could just drown youself in an ocean of books in that place and be happy and contented browsing, reading.. what memories!

The libraries in the US were better, what with computerized VAX search tools of the entire catalog! Took a part time job shelving books on saturday and sunday for minimum wage when I was in grad school. It was great because I would get to reshelve the books, remember which ones to check out later and read them during the week and also get paid for it.

Wish Jr. takes to the library like her dad. She is guaranteed to have fun!

ps. Voldermort-age = the age that cannot be spoken
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Newceedeeophobia

You will not find that word in the dictionary. It is a rare problem found in three year olds (and is known to extend even to six year olds) who have a fixation with a particular CD that plays day in and day out when we are driving.

The symptoms are observed usually the day a new music album or movie album is purchased and inserted into the CD player.

Usual signs include a loud scream of protest, with some tears running down the face accompanied by whimpers of "I don't want this new CD. I only want _______ !"

To the untrained parent, this is a very tricky thing to deal with. Sometimes the elders might even consider this move by the kids as "abshagun" or inauspicious! A new CD is getting inserted into the disk drive for the first time and there is wailing as though someone has died in the disc player!

Scientific minded parents are equally baffled by Newceedeeophobia (or NewCDophobia as the American slang dictionary would eventually call it). "How could this kid who embraced this previous CD, not know that this one would be equally better? Did the kid not learn from the previous experiences?" The answer as explained by Dr. Narayanöhe of the BOGUS Institute is a resounding "No".

Based on intense research conducted using a three year old, who for the sake of annonymity will be referred to here as the little one, it appears as though the kid always needs a bribe to listen to anything new. Once you get the LO into the preview hearing, favorites are picked, song requests are made, and a new fixation is born. At that point, any refusal to comply to demands, on going to that song will be treated with Newceedeeophobia!

A side effect has also been observed. In the case of a CD with multiple songs which make the cut, only "one" song will be picked and it will have to be the starting song when her holiness gets into the vehicle.

Another dangerous side effect is that grown women have shown similar milder forms of this rare affliction where NPR will automatically be switched off and replaced with a music CD from the subcontinent. The new strain in the younger kids just seems to be a more radical form the old strain! One song in one CD only as opposed to any song in any CD replacing radio!

If these trends continue projects Dr. Narayanöhe, soon we will have to start with a particular word or paragraph or chime in a certain song in a certain CD when the ignition key is turned on in the automobile! Scary indeed for future generation daddys!

Currently there seems to be no cure for Newceedeeophobia and the BOGUS institute is working on one.

ps. We are now officially parked in what is called the "monkey song", if you catch my drift...

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Jr. speaks

Yesterday afternoon, everyone in Jr.'s class got to watch a videotape of the Obama inauguration in their auditorium.

She aced the quiz on who is who, what the inauguration is about etc. when we asked her about the video.

Daddy, was driving on Lawrence expressway after dropping off kids at daycare and just reached work when Obama started speaking! While there was a temptation to stay in the van and listen to the radio, work called and knowing that the thing was being recorded at home anyways, went in to work.

While watching the inaugural speech, Jr. looked up and asked me

"Daddy, can only a man be president?"

I said "why do you ask that? Of course not, a woman can be a president!"

Jr. : Which woman was president?

Me : No one so far. But we did not have black President's either.. now we have a black president. we will have a woman President soon!

Jr. : I want to be President!

Me : I ask you to copy three sentences from the book and you made six mistakes! You see how long he is speaking without making any mistakes? First learn to write without mistakes and then you can talk of becoming the President!

Jr. : Okayyyyy! I will write without making misakes.. (stomped on the floor and walked out!)

For starters, the new President has provided motivational material for a few hours in this house!

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