…depending on your point of view. I found it hilarious. I don’t have anything terribly interesting to blog about, so I will share this clip that I saw recently on Mr. Moo’s blog. I absolutely *loved* it. If you like shows like ER and Scrubs but have ‘alternative medicine’ leanings and wish they made something a little different, well, you might like it too 
!
(Thank you, Mr. Moo)
No time for intros 
.
[The scene: Upstairs, earlier this evening. Me, pottering about, ticking off half a dozen chores before bedtime and keeping an eye on Apya as she played with her bath toys and threw one question at me every second, touching every topic under the sun. She never stops talking, this kid.]
“So Mummy, where were you born?”
“India.”
“Where was Baba born?
“India.”
“So you’re Indian?
“Yep”
“And Baba’s Indian?”
“He is.”
“And am I Indian?”
“I guess so. Partly, anyway.”
“Where was I born? Was I born in India too?
“Nope, you were born in ———-, Ireland.”
(Pause)
“I was born in Ireland??”
“Uh huh”
“And where was Bubbu born?”
“Ireland.”
(Pause)
“But that means we’re Eng-lish-men.”
(I had to turn away to hide a smile here, because Apya is very sensitive and can get quite put off if she thinks somebody is laughing at her or making fun of her.)
“Actually, it makes you an Irishwoman.”
“What? Bubbu too? An Irish woman?”
“Yeah”
(Thinking pause. These are precious, being so rare, you see….)
“So does that mean we were born in the wrong family???”
What do you expect to find on a mommy blog if not the above?
So the other day, the Bubsie was seated on her potty and I was standing in the doorway listening to her prattle – when she paused, mid-prattle, and went slightly red to do her business – following it up with this announcement (which co-incided with an audible ‘plop’): “Mummy, I did a daddy-poo-poo!”
“Really??”
Thoughtful pause, followed by a nod, followed by a “Yes, and now I’m doing a mommy-poo-poo….” which co-incided with a smaller ‘plop’…..
Another pause later, we had an “Apya-poo-poo”, and a “Bubsie-poo-poo”, after which we … er, maybe that’s enough detail for today.
What do I think of this? Anything that makes pottying fun and averts those dreaded stinky accidents (which had us husband and wife fighting over who would wash her and clean up the mess) is fine with me. Especially as my nose and hands stank for 2 days straight after cleaning up ONE accident.
So I don’t mind it AT ALL if this cutesie informs me today that the mini-poo that plopped into the toilet bowl was “Katie-poo-poo” (named in kind honour of her friend at the creche) or the big one was “Sandwa-poo-poo” (the largish but very kind teacher). It’s actually turning into a fun game, guessing who today’s poo will be named after.
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I sincerely, in all honesty, meant to record a really enjoyable conversation that took place between me and Apya the other day, but I seem to have forgotten it. (Yawn….)
Feeling tired, exhausted and unwilling to blog.
What better way to pick up my enthusiasm than to upload my rainbows.
*******
Seeing rainbows every few days is the bright side of living in a rainy place like Ireland.
Seeing rainbows with 2 little bright-eyed faces is priceless!
Here they are (the rainbows, not the bright faces ):
( And I’ll upload more when I get the chance.)
-Okay, I should be doing other things, but I suppose I can sneak in another post, can’t I?
-And because there are a lot of unconnected points in this post, we’ll ditch the paragraphs and go for (bullet) points.
-The Deccan Herald, which I think is a Bangalore-based newspaper, carried an article on desi mommy bloggers. The sweet woman that the author is, Kinjal-Dagli Shah began her article by quoting my first post - and then the DH ate up an ‘a’, (and substituted ‘a’ with ‘the’ in another place) and gave that first paragraph a whole new meaning altogether. It made me sound way more important than I am in the world of mommy blogging – *pauses to chuckle to self* – so just in case you didn’t know – mommy bloggers were born when I cradled the Bubbu in my left hand and typed with my right. Except I wasn’t lying down when I typed it, I was sitting on a chair and typing away on the laptop on the table in the study. *sigh, I still remember that house…….
[And although I as a blogger certainly wasn't born in Jan 2007 (nope, my love affair with blogger goes back to 2002 - and believe it or not, I still remember the template that Pyra used to have and the tagline it used to display "Blogger - push-button publishing for the masses" - or something like it), so although this blogger wasn't born in 2007, yes this mommy blogger and her blog was born on a cold January night that year.]
-Except, I read the first paragraph of that article and said, “What??? Was I crazy? 85 percent vs 15 percent?? That’s ridiculous – why did I write a weird thing like that?”
It took me a while to remember why I wrote that: it was because – at that time – it really was a tough time. During those days, the Bubsie was having pretty bad colic in the evenings and wouldn’t settle till around 3 am. The eczema wasn’t at its worse then – that came a few weeks later. Apya was 3 years old and had perfected the art of winding around her little finger all the three adults in the house other than me (i.e., her grandparents and her Dad); she would test me from time to time – I would invariably NOT give in and this would invoke the ire of the grandparents.
Yeah, it was challenging. Except, even then, I don’t think I meant to say that the joys of parenting were only 15 percent.
Of course not. They’re way more than that. And now, when I don’t really find it difficult on most days (oh well, except sometimes): I would say the percentages have shifted to around 40 and 60.
In fact, if you ask me NOW, I would say that I do not differentiate at all between the hard work involved in parenting and the joy that it brings – that they are one and the same. Yep, I finally love mothering – every minute of it, and every aspect of it.
_____________________________________________________________
After ranting on about difficult and temperamental Apya, I went and got myself a copy of The Incredible Years, and was pleasantly surprised to note that:
1) I had skimmed through this book about 4 years ago but forgotten this fact completely – (talk about momnesia!) and,
2) after reading through a few chapters, a lot of things fell into perspective.
These are as follows:
-I was relieved – and mighty pleased with myself – to know that I’m doing most things right. It was actually reassuring to read the first few chapters and think, “Hey, I’m already applying a lot of this in my dealings with this kid!” and “Great – I’m doing this right too”, as though in many ways, I found myself happy with my parenting style.
I thought I tended towards authoritarianism, but reading this book helped me to stand back and take an objective look at myself and I was actually able to give myself a little pat on the back and say, No, MJ, you’re doing fine; you’re a good mix of boss-parent, silly-friend, play-mate and confidante. (Keep up the good work. *Pats self on shoulder again.)
-Apya isn’t half as difficult as I thought she was. I realized this very quickly when the book started to talk about ’serious issues such as lying, stealing, hitting’ etc. The worst I have to deal with is persistent pouting. That’s VERY PERSISTENT and DETERMINED POUTING, by the way. It can really get to you. Even so, it comes under minor offences. Realizing that there are worse things to deal with has made me appreciate the genuine goodness of Apya and focus on her sterling positive qualities more than the few annoying habits which were driving us up the wall.
-I have also been able to look at her ‘annoying habits’ in a new light – her need to be constantly stimulated and kept engaged, her endless inquisitiveness should rather be appreciated for what it is – a bright, keen mind and a creative, energetic personality that needs to be kept occupied with activities that interest her. We have spent endless hours these last few weeks drawing, painting, making cards, and other craft work. The crafty things that she came up with – with very little input from me or her dad – have made me beam with pride.
-If you can pick up even one piece of useful advice from reading a book, I say that it’s a good use of time. The new parenting strategy that we hadn’t ever thought of was the advice to “Ignore”. This one I found very difficult to apply. I realized that “Ignoring” is our area of weakness – by our I mean myself and Babajaan. It’s a powerful idea and tool, but one that we aren’t quite used to yet.
Don’t know if the above points made any sense to you, but they have made some sense to me, and since the point of blogging – for me – is to clear things up in my mind, we’ll stop this post here tonight.
(Mothering rocks! I love it!)
What do you say when somebody sneezes?
A. “Bless you!”
What do you say when the Bubsie sneezes?
A. “Bless you!”. But of course, why should it change?
What should the Bubsie say when she sneezes?
“Excuse me”, perhaps? Nope. That is the wrong answer.
The right answer is “Bless me!”
———————————-
And what’s more – today she honoured snot – SNOT – that green and white mucousy and sticky snot – with a new term:
“Mummy, I sneezed and the “bless-me” came on my shirt – can-you-wipe-it-please?”
The snot must have been so pleased to have her grace it with such an elegant name.
———————–
A few months ago, she used to say, “Ham-na-nannah” (“Alhamdulillah”) after sneezing. Quite reasonable.
Then her funny streak took over. (How could it not?)
So then, whenever she heard anyone say “Alhamdulillah” after sneezing, she would respond with, “Ach-ooo!”
Lopsided manners 
!
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(No, I’m not back from the break; I’m just sneaking in a short post.)
…………..indefinitely. I miss writing about the kiddies, but sadly, there is too little time to blog. Must see if I can organize myself enough to squeeze in a little time here and there. Otherwise, oh well!
(P.S., the odd post might creep in, ref: “law of blog-breaks”)
Happy 69th b’day to our dearest Nanababa, aka known as ‘Nana’ by your adoring two grand-daughters. I hope and pray for your good health and long life.
Your birthday is our excuse to bake a yummy chocolate cake today and eat it.
