Back beat

Waiting near the window...

Picking the sand...

She has been learning the Kannada letters and she has succeeded in it quite well.

Her whole conversations are but in questions now!

"Where did I come from? Once I grow big like you will I too get a baby?
Why every body else has a sister and not me?
I have never seen papa conducting meeting inside his office, can I see it?"

The questions are never ending...

She is very excited to attend her K2 class now. More so as her mother is at home waiting for her:)
She played a new game with me that was taught to her in the class; the ABC game I would call it- rather very good to teach children lowercase letters.

'Sun Blocking'

Took this picture on a sunny day against the light in my drawing room.

This is the third time she's been away from us now.
There is an unusual quietness around without her.
The whole house would be bustling with laughter and shrieks of cries in her presence.
Now, it's all STILL.
The otherwise unkempt corners of the house are now clean and tidy untouched by her foot prints.
The only noise that can be heard comes from outside: the shrill sound of the concrete mixture next to the apartment, children splashing water in the swimming pool, the brushing of the broom sticks on the floor as a maid tries to push aside puddle of water that entered the corridor because of an unusual downpour.

The heart felt bitter when she cried on first two days as she wished to be with her mother in Hyderabad.
Though regretful, some corner of the heart felt happy for this fact.

But now, she semms to be enjoying in her world with her grandparents. This is heartbreaking:(
Parents are SELFISH (for their children)... The only reason for that could be LOVE.

MISSING YOU my dear.

Sight words

Anvitha has started learning three letter words.
Though she is trying hard to make connections between the letter and its corresponding sound, she is learning many of them just by looking at them.

After getting an idea of teaching sight words accidentally, I decided to make the 'sight word caterpillar'.
And it proved to be really useful.
She has learnt almost 10 words and can recognize them while am reading a story for her.

Happy Holi

Peers

A slight feeling of jealousy passes through my heart everyday when I see Anvitha going away with her friends to play.
Complete freedom filled with innocence. Our complete corridor reverberates of their laughter, calling each other and to end it all- a fight.
Cycling, visiting each others' house, role playing... her whole evening is engaged in these activities.

She has grown to be the leader of her group now where she commands and others follow.
She can even start a conversation with adults if is unable to find her agemates.
It is good to see her having company all through the evening. It's given me some free time too:)

Grandparents' house as depicted by Anvitha

I told her to draw the picture of a house and she drew the picture of her grandparents' house with extra details of garden laid on both sides of the road:)

Together

It's been eight months since I've been working yet, my girl wouldn't leave me to go to school on the days when she doesn't have to go to school.

Initially when it just started, I thought she needs time to settle down. But now I know, all that she wants is me.

It's my company that she longs for, the bike ride from home till our bus stops where we depart. She likes it.

She wishes to see me picking her from the bus when she is back from school, which I have not been able to do even once till now.

She missed me for her 'Show and Tell' program. She misses our 'reading together' times which seldom occurs these days.

I regret for having to go to school to teach other kids when I am not finding time to teach my own child.

Waiting for the next four months to pass by so that my girl wouldn't miss those beautiful moments which we share together.

I do not mind missing my job.

Stances

The new house is scary for her.
All things lying scattered and the house giving a bare look isn't too familiar to her.
She follows me whereever I go, be it kitchen or bath room.

She has come in terms with the fact that mother too goes to school now and she has also expressed her dislike towards that as she misses her being around.
But that has not stopped her from enjoying the activities at the day care; she does like her dance, music and gymnastic classes at the daycare.

She has forgotten all the learning that happened last few months.
Thanks to her carefree life with grandparents.
Of course, she has learned a few other things like talking too much (which she already did) and putting forth all her demands and expecting them to be met.
Blackmailing her parents is the best of all! She warns us to behave properly with her as she would go to her Ammamma's house acted otherwise.

Right now, waiting for her school to reopen and see the hurry in which we both have to RUN to catch our buses.

Away from parents

It's been exactly two weeks since she has been away from us.
She had waited the moment to go with her grand-parents to her favourite place where she would be as free as a bird.
She was even prepared that her mama won't be accompanying her in this journey.
But, the very next day she realised that she was missing her mother and cried inconsolably over the phone.
Guilt surrounded me as I heard her trembling voice; mind had already started making arrangements as how to and when to get her back.
But S asked that we wait, she would defintely need some time to get settled.
So we did.
The next few days, she missed her mother only in the evenings.
After a week she got the company of 'friends' and now she hardly has any time to talk to us.
She seems to be 'busy' (as she uttered these words when asked to talk to us) with her peers all the time.

Now, that all my guilt has flown away I am only concerned about the days when she will be back in Hyd., playing with her usual toys, working with her books and confining herself to the four walls inside the house.

Little foodie

She is choosy about her food when we go out but when at home she knows exactly what she wants. A small change in taste, she will refuse to touch the food. She is learning to share her eatables now, with us of course. She offered her tic-tac to our divine God today:) She relishes on the little ghee-sugar combination that's offered as naivedya everyday. As far as mother and daughter as a duo is concerned we enjoy our pasta dish together. We also shared a bar of chocolate today sitting on the terrace as though we didn't want anybody else watching us!

Fun with crayons

Here are a few samples of Anvitha's drawing (both at school and at home)...

Last one month has been very difficult with her.
Parenting looked like a Herculean job!

Every step we (S and I) took to bring down her irritability provoked her to show more frustration and tantrum.
It was very clear then that she was tired of the monotony of this life and more so she was missing her grandparents.

Now somehow we realise that it's just a transition period as she is growing up.
It looks a lot like Teen Age period where the teenager thinks and acts like a grown up yet she/he's got to learn a lot. And when these things are explained they become irritated even more.

'A' needs a lot of appreciation almost all the time and she is fully aware when she is doing something wrong.
She needs her mummy's attention at all times. When given strict instructions not disturb amma, she will make sure that she will repeat the same statement 10 times when I am working thus ending up disturbing me:)

Cutting and pasting papers is her new favourite past time (thanks to her teachers and Mister Maker of CBeebies). Of course, her love for water and sand continue to be present.
Her TV watching has been reduced to half hour a day (looking at the addiction she was beginning to have with the box) with 'no violence and no cartoons' tags attached.