Wednesday, August 18, 2010

back to earth

I got home at 2am yesterday morning. After unpacking all the fruits (they all came alrright except the rasperries which had juiced up a good bit), and chatting with husband, we heard Sophia crying. I went in.

Sophia had her eyes closed. She didnt see me.

"Sophia", I said.

"bua bua!" came the answer

"And hello to you too"

So Sophia hung on the bua bua until 7 in the morning, even without realizing that I was home.

Anjali woke up at seven. She was very enthusiastic about seeing me, and even more enthusiastic about all the stuff in the suitcase for the girls. Sophia also woke up at seven, and a thousand watt bulb shone on her face. All day, she refused to get off my hips.

Anjali was fine till we got to the busstop, when she began to cry about not going to school. "mummy only..." she kept saying. I get a bit guilty about that, as I hardly had any alone time with Anjali since I got back. Last evening, I had the mother of all jetlags. At seven pm, I was so sleepy, and so totally overwhelmed. Husband stepped in and got Anjali to help him with cutting planks for our new plant space.

We did a number of things - played candyland, with the foam playdough,  blowpen tattoos etc etc. They were fun, but had a sense of randomness to them. I'll have to begin my evening plan and scheduling once I get back on track.

Of all the things I got back from the states, Sophia was most attached to thhe monsters, and she wont understand when i told her that they werent for her, but for her friends. She goes around carrying the package, saying things like

"Sandhya's mohshter... Vishnu's mohster.. miaki akka's mohshter... All Shapia things."

When Anjali zoomed through her candyland without using the cards, Sophia goes "cheating no!!"

Anjali liked, of all the things, the books "The monster at the end of this book" and "the runaway bunny". She also liked the play foam. "Mummy, this is not playdough mummy, this is stifoam".

"have you played with this before?", I aksed her

"Yes. In my school"

"Do you play with it all the time in your school?"

"No. Only somedays.", she said, "when Mrs Gan and Mrs Liew were in my school"

=========

Anjali tells this story about Harry potter and the deathly snake. Harry potter is going to kill a snake, because the snake will eat him otherwise. This is because the snake is bad and Harry potter is so cute.

"What does cute mean?", I asked.

"It means Harry potter is a little good and a little bad"

"Why is he bad and why is he good?"

"He is bad because he ate something, and there was poison in his stomach and the thing died"

I swear that I didnt tell her anything about "deathly hallows" or "deathly snake" or anything like that. I did starrt telling her philosopher's stone, but there was no mention about all the stuff she has made up. My best bet is that someone in her school must have watched Chamber of secrets and made up a story about it.

Anjali has gotten some kind of phone toy. She hoodwinked thattha into buying it for her. There is a Doreamon on it. So she says that one eye of Doreaon is mummy and the other eye is Harry potter and the deathly snake.
=====================

We were looking at Graeme Base's animalia. One of the images in that book was a skull, on the S page.

"Mummy, what is that?"

"it is a skull"

"A skull is like a bone?"

"Yes. Its a bone"

"It is the bone of someone who has died?"

"No. Its the bones of everyone. you have a skull just like that, and so do I"

Anjali digested this.

"Mummy, but when we die, our bones will come out."

"Who told you this?"

"I learnt it all by myself"

It is natural for me to pinpoint all these conversations to something she is picking up in school. But do three year old children gossip to such a depth of fact exchange such as a harry potter story or the nature of skulls and bones?

Or is some knowledge that is innate coming out.

Exactly what does "i learnt it all by myself mean?"

What about when, when Anjali uses the blowpens, she says

"Mummy, do you know why the ink comes out when you blow?"

"Why the ink comes out when you blow?", i ask, trying in  my mind to see how the laws of motion could be simplified

"Yes mummy. When you blow, the wind goes through this hole and the wind pushes this button and then it goes through the tunnel, and it drags the color with it"

"Wow!", i said, impressed "you are going to be a scientist"

"I am going to be a scientist and a mummy"

"And a mummy!"

"I am going to be a scientist and a mummy and a dolphin. "

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