Who are these "guys"?

Just as I was breathing a sigh of relief on account of saving the "guys" topic with Jr. on the previous post, the little one decides to overuse the word "guys". We must have heard it a few thousand times in the last 48 hours!

Still do not know where she heard this. Obviously she picked it up from someplace. Keeps talking to these imaginary "guys" on the phone, sometimes more than 10 minutes at a time.

Here is a secret video of the little one talking to her imaginary...

Do you notice her say things like "He was so rude. I dont like that!"

The little one was roaming around the house in her "jatti" because we were potty training her and were pretty much under house arrest during the weekend. Thanks to her phone call and the secret videos, we were not bored one bit!

Who are these guys? Why am I being given a sneak peak into the future? Why this early? What is the rush to have these coy conversations with imaginary dudes? Maybe she is breaking me early?

I stand no chance!

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Aspirations?

A casual conversation with Jr.

Me : What do you want to become when you grow old?
Jr.: (puts finger on her chin and thinks...)
Me : It is okay. Take your time. Don't say something because it is the last thing you did or see. Think and tell me what you want to become (of course hoping all the time that she would say "want to be just like daddy, wear a smock and work in a fab"..)
Jr.: I am thinking.. don't rush me!!
Me : Okay. I will wait!
Jr.: (comes back to living room after 5 mins). Daddy... I know what I want to be when I grow up.
Me : What ? What? Come here, sit on my lap and tell me.. I am all ears.
Jr.: I want to be "pregnant"!
Me : (stunned silence) Why?
Jr.: So I can have a baby! like mommy..
Me : Takes a full two minutes to recover from the shock.. (clears throat and launches into a monologue). Kuttyma, you WILL be pregnant when you grow up. Every girl who managed to grew up, on your dad and moms side of the family, went on to become pregnant and have kids. So the probability of you getting pregnant and having babies is very high! But before that, you have to finish elementary school, then go to middle school, high school, then college, then go to work like mommy and THEN get pregnant!
Jr.: Okay daddy! But why should I go to work at IBM?
Me : (I never mentioned IBM in the monologue) Well, only if you work, you will have money and only if you have money, you can buy diapers for the baby! Otherwise she will poop all over you!
Jr.: (after some more thinking) Okay daddy!

There were two points on the monologue that struck me as odd.

The first one was that I was just trying to send the message to get an education first. The job is not a pre-requisite to getting pregnant (neither is an education for that matter!). It was more of an instinctive thing I said because of the percentage of working mothers in our families and to let her know that there has to be some economic security before having kids.

The second point was that there was no mention of men and the getting pregnant part etc. That was a godsend! Now, on the off chance that the @#%$#$$ that is eventually going to get married to my daughter and get her pregnant, eventually reading this post.....

a. "YOU" there, are a #@%$@$$ till you prove yourselves otherwise! Granted my daughter is only five at the time of writing this post, but what did you expect? I have fully morphed into a combination of my father and father-in-law! I am in short "just an ordinary daddy" by now, and it has only been five freaking years! God knows what I will morph into when I am fifty plus years old!

b. Chances of me arranging a wedding twenty years from now are slim. However you can redeem yourself when Jr. gives you a "good husband" certificate on her first Quarterly Marriage report.

As usual, I digress. The message to the dude is, well... "I have no say in what my daughter does when she grows up, but hopefully by the time you read this post, we would have raised her to be a responsible woman who knows how to make important decisions".. and of course "I will be watching you!"

Kids.... aaaaarrrrrghhhhhhh!

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Upping the ante?

Conversations with the little one.

Pick her up from daycare

Me : Lets go home
LO : go to akka's school
Me : Mommy is already gone to the school
LO : why are you not pickuping her?

another day

LO : Wake up akka!
Jr.: Go away. I want to sleep
LO : comes running to the living room and shouts "She is not wakeupping!"

apparently Pick up , Wake up , etc. are single words!

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The mind of a child

The human brain is an amazing thing. A childs brain is probably even more amazing than an adult brain, from a thought perspective.

The whole separation anxiety post should be seen in a different light.

Today the Little one came and kissed my boo boo. Bumped my hand somewhere and she came running to kiss it. In her mind, daddy cannot get better without her kiss. It definitely makes me feel better when she comes running to kiss. She associates my smile to be healing and extrapolates it.

The whole time I was away, she was probably worried about me, not about her. What would this big baby do if he were to get hurt in Texas? How would be survive without my healing kiss? How could he possibly go to sleep without me on his hand?

Today she said "Dont worry daddy. You are here now. I will kiss you and everything will be all right!". She was so serious when she said it.

As an adult I fail my wife and kids so many times because of being in my own self centered world. Most adults are self centered! That is the way of the world. You have your work, your family, your home, your this, your that.. It is at the end of the day all about "you", "your perspective", and "your world"!

There is not a lot of options here. Even when you think about your kids, they are "your" kids and the thought is usually about "your" worries on how what "you" are doing affects them as they grow up!

Once in a while "you" get the view from the childs point of view and it boggles "your" mind!

ps. Was accused of being very selfish earlier today, which I probably am. Tried to see how often the word "I" is used in my posts. Not a lot. But when you always tend to write in second person or as Daddy, you are doing the wrong search to determine "% self centeredness"!!

There is a lot more "you" and "daddy" in this blog to prove that point!

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Jose.. Jose.. Jose..

Talk about beating Jose to death, literally!

No, there is no physical person being abused here, just that, Jose's name is being over used in our house.

Two weeks ago, Jr. learnt the phrase "No way, Jose!" to emphasize "No way!". I would like to find out who taught her this at school and do . . . .but that is another post altogether.

Jr. tells the little one "No way, Jose!", everytime her sister tries to do anything in the realm of playing.

The little one, a very smart and fast learner I might add, figures out that invoking this Jose command has a lot more power than just simple screaming or wailing and now ends every sentence with Jose! She just turned two and is talking only in full sentences (consciously makes an attempt) and they all end in Jose!

Earlier this evening, Daddy was assembling some recently acquired furniture from IKEA while the little one was running away with some parts and setting up her own assemly plant in another corner of the room.

Me : Bring those back. I need them to finish the shelf!
LO : Don't disturb me Jose!
Me : (getting upset and smiling at the same time) What?!!!
(Jr. started laughing, when she saw the way the little one said that with mischief in her eyes).
LO : I am working, Jose.
Me : I am getting very upset. You know I am going to come there and give you an adi (spank)!
LO : smiles and says "I know, Jose!"

While this cracks me up (and Jr. was laughing hysterically at the whole thing), we need to have a proper plan to wean her off of Jose.

Painful as it may be for me, it is definitely amusing. Will try to secret video this and post it. In the meantime, if any of you have seen your kids experience Joseitis, and know the cure, please feel free to let me know.

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