Growing up..

Sid has grown up! And I think I like it better..

Earlier, when he was adamant about something, he would absolutely not budge.. but now I think it has gotten slightly better… if I offer him the metaphorical carrot.  And I am finally learning the art of negotiation that they tried so hard to teach me in B-school.

After a few minutes of trying to get him to the washbasin to brush his teeth, his appa asks..

Do you want to help me get to the washbasin (which just means I am going to drag you to it..) or do you want to do it yourself?

And that DOES seem to do the trick as he zooms towards me waiting with the brush and paste!

After a few minutes of trying to get him to take bath, I tell him..

No more Johnson baby, for kids! Let us use Liril, it is green and smells so good!

And that DOES seem to do the trick as he zooms forward to the bathroom.

What I cannot get him to agree is to switch off the train videos. I have let him have his way a bit on this. But after an hour of this, I tell him, Two more and you close the laptop..

And he starts counting with his fingers. .Three more…No..No.. Four more..

Finally we agree on Five more.. and close the laptop on Ten.

And after that I let him mess around with the paint for a while, so he is distracted enough to not go back to the laptop again!

But I realize he is growing up, so having conversations with him saying not to do something works, if not immediately, at some point eventually.. Even if he continues to do the same, he does it and then calls out loud what I will react, and smiles! So, atleast the concept is explained in theory and gives me some hope to clutch on…!

Now, Sid, I cannot just wait for you to grow up and take over the cooking..

 

The kitchen helper

I was making some tomato rice a couple of days back. Since we have a cook at home, Sid is not much used to seeing me in the kitchen these days. But he turned out to be the true kitchen helper wanting to lay a hand on every vegetable that I was chopping. He raced to the kitchen and investigated what I was upto. I was cutting the vegetables on the table and he peeped to take a look. After some attempts, he looked at me & said — ‘amma, ukkachu’ insisting I sit & cook, so he can take a clear look as well. And, so I obliged. He watched with keen enthusiasm as I was taking a shot at the onions, tomatoes, chillies, etc. He also watched me working on the peas and coriander, and got the general idea .. after a few seconds, he peeled the skin to pop the peas out and also trimmed the coriander leaves. I was quite impressed with my little prodigy Common, hubby hasn’t got a hang of these things in all these years. So, I’ve my reasons to be enthralled about finding my own little kitchen-helper!