And as Jillu is

about to complete 4 years, she is now eagerly waiting for the new arrival in the family.

Jillu is about to become a big Sis very soon.. May be in a month or so !

Needless to say, she is excited and has 1001 questions! Already a proud sis !

Her repeated statements
"I was born first right ? So I am the elder sis "
" Paapaaku akkaava dhaan romba pidikum" ( The baby will love the sis the most !)
" I shall take care of the baby once I am back from school"

and thus the list goes on..

Kaakaa Nari Kadhai

Adaptation....

Jillu : Paati, Paati, Nee romba azhagaa irukkiye! Mahabharatham lerundhu oru kadhai sollen !

(Grandma, you are looking so beautiful ! Pls tell me a story from Mahabharatham na )

And its Official !

Yes ! Its Plugged OFF these days :)

For those of you who do not know whats a plug, its simply thumb sucking :). To know more about it, read this post.

Atlast, Jillu has stopped the habit and I have been waiting to make sure before blogging and making it official :).
Its been a month now since she sucked her thumb. So I guess its pretty safe to say that she has indeed left the habit. We have also got her a couple of gifts (games) to mark the occasion :)

The whole thing started prior to the Pooja holidays. I was planning to apply the bitter nail polish on her thumb during the holidays so that her timings is not affected (she just cannot sleep without it). So from 15 days before the holidays, I kept telling her that "one fine day, when you wake up, your thumb will taste bitter and 20 days from that day, your thumb will go into your stomach and you will lose your thumb".GROSSSS ! I know. But I had to do something ! I knew just applying  would take me nowhere! She laughed it away and went on her way till the holidays. But I kept issuing the warning every day.

And then, 2 days into the holidays, I applied the nail polish on her thumb early in the morning when she was sleeping. I was just relying on the surprise and the secret factor. And it worked ! MY GOD ! Poor thing ! She was confused and also a bit scared when she realized that what Amma said was true and whatever Amma said was indeed happening ! And then the frequency of plug started to reduce day by day as she found her thumb bitter whenever she woke up from sleep. But as days went by, and when Jillu found that the thumb was indeed in tact  and showed no signs of vanishing into the stomach, the fear factor went away and I started to lose the ground I had gained.

And then luck favored me ! I should not say luck really, because Poor Jillu suffered ! But its indeed a blessing in disguise. She had severe mouth ulcers and could not eat anything, let alone, put plug. And thats when the habit really stopped. In the week that she was suffering from mouth ulcer, she did not put the plug even once. And all of us used it to our advantage and told her "See, the boils came because of plug. The moment you start again, its going to come back". Poor Jillu had suffered so much (only curd rice every meal, no variety, no talking which I think she found the most difficult :), and so on) that she didn't want to risk again.

And now its been a month and she has been clean till now. And I hope this continues and is for ever.

But, her drifting off into sleep has taken a major blow and I am finding it very difficult to put her to sleep. Earlier, she would put the plug and would be off to sleep soon. But now, without that, she is struggling to get into a proper position, wriggles this way and that way and takes for ever to sleep even when she is sleepy.

Hopefully this is also just a phase and shall pass soon !

HOPE ! HOPE ! HOPE!

Jillu Talkies -12

After a long gap, read how and what Jillu talks these days :)

She was unusually quiet for a while in the hall and came running to me in the kitchen suddenly. I got suspicious and asked her

Me: yenna pannittu vandhe? (What did you do ?)
Jillu : Onnum illa. Naan paavamaa summaa ukkandhuttu vandhen. (Nothing. I just simply sat like a paavam girl )

*************

Naan periyava aana udane, coffee pottu tharuven, dosai vaapen, naane mehendi vechupen
(After I become bigger, I shall make coffee, dosa etc. I will even keep Mehendi myself)

****************

She saw one half of the beautiful butterfly cup that she had broken last year. I was using it for some other purpose in the kitchen. She looked at it and asked

Jillu : andha cup naan udacha udane nee yenna panne yenna? (What did you do when I broke that cup?)
Me : naan timeout kuduthen ( I gave you time out)
Jillu : yen ? (Why?)
Me : pinna yenna paanuvaalaam? (Then what else should I have done?)
Jillu : inime panna maataanu chumaa vitturukanum! (You should have let me go free assuming I wont repeat again!)

Another small item

that I have been wanting to complete for a very long time got done this week. :) Yet again, a very tiny and simple matter but I kept postponing !

From the time I saw this entry in the hall of fame art blog, I wanted to do the same for Jillu knowing it would do wonders for her if I displayed her work. Did you notice the post date for that entry ? Yeah. It dates back to May of 2010 and I saw the post on the day it was posted :)

But here, it is at last a similar creation hanging in my home for Jillu now :)

And she was really overjoyed :) Now she keeps asking for "good and fresh " white paper every time so that it can go up on the board there :)

A new beginning

And no.. I am not talking about this post which has come after a long time and the redemption of the blog from the slumber that it has got into :).
Instead this post is about something that I have been meaning to do for a long while (read years) and finally got it done. Its not something great and time consuming. Just a very simple task, yet I was just postponing.
And without more ado, here it is,

Yes, a pot plant (Karpooravalli). Living in an apartment, i cant even think of backyards and garden. But still wanted some greenery in my house, so wanted to grow some plants that will grow from my balcony itself. Just a simple thing, na ? but its taken me years to do it.

I bought it couple of months back (July end) and its coming up very nicely :) Jillu has the daily task of watering  this plant. I was so happy that I at last managed to do it, that I wanted to blog and record it immediately. But its taken me more than 2 months to blog about it :)

I donno anything about gardening and growing plants. So wanted to start with something simple. Now that the plant is thriving, I am planning to add a couple more to make it colorful.My balcony does receive some sunlight during the hot days. I was thinking about rose. One red and one yellow. How about it ? Any other suggestions?

P.S : And Jillu does take this task very seriously. "Adhu yenna nambi dhaan vandhurukku". (the plant is dependent on me).

Jillu Talkies - 11

Dinner Time

Jillu had completed her main course. As is the norm, I gave her her habitual cup of curd (which she lovvvess and usually insists on having it herself)

Me : Jillu, eat your curd.

Jillu: Amma, please, you feed me 

Me : No da. Can you please have it yourself? You usually do that, right ? And it is something that you love. Amma has some work. So, please go and have your curd.

Jillu : No, ma, you have to come.

(this goes on for a while and Amaa becomes slightly irritated)

Me : Jillu, Dont make trouble for having curd. If you want, you have it. Otherwise, its OK. you need not eat. OK ?

Jillu Talkies - 10

Dinner time and the little madam has had her share of food and is content.
Next is her Mom's turn and she is having hers amidst various distractions in between (What else but running behind this cute toddler?)


Kutti Madam gets restless  and


Jillu : Amma, nee yenna panre ?(what are you doing ?)
Me : Nee sollu (You tell me)
Jillu : Saapadariyaa ? Amma unakku pasikkudhaa ? (Are you eating ? Are you feeling very hungry?)
Me (ahaa ! OK, she is so understanding! Now I can have my dinner in peace!) : Yes, da chellam
Jillu : Amma, nee saaptadhu porum! Chaapdaadhe ! vaa ma! vandhu vilaiyaadu! (Mom, you have had enough! Dont eat! Come and play withe me!)

Gyaan (III)

Her current obsession for dressing is pants ! Anywhere, everywhere and always, she wants to wear pants ! All the frilly frocks, non frilly frocks, skirts are all sleeping in the cup board safely.
This leaves me to find devious ways (even cahooting with Jillu's close friend's mom - "hey Jillu, your friend "S" is going to wear a frock today and she has asked you to wear a frock as well to school today" ) for making her wear anything other than pants!
Today, I took rest and let her go her way ! So naturally it was pants and tops again!
As usual she rushed away after getting dressed and I called her back !
"Jillu, come here. Bindhi is not yet done. Come on, fast !"


and then came the Gyaan !
"Amma, pant pottundaa pottu vechukka koodaadhu ! Asingamaa irukkum" (Mom, we should not wear bindhi while wearing pants ! It will look horrible!"


THE FASHION GYAAN ! 

Now, we are moving

on to Tattoos. 
She didn't know the word day before yesterday.


And yesterday, she had seen, learnt, pestered me for one and retired to bed at night proudly sporting a mickey mouse tattoo ! 


What's next ? :)