Yoohoo

Hello! My name is Tara. It's been a while since my mom said anything about me here, so I'm taking matters into my own hands. I have a list of things I think you should know about me. In no particular order, here goes:

• I'm a troublemaker. Let's just get that clear at the outset. I love trouble. I love making trouble. I love getting my brother into trouble and I love seeing my mom's face when she sees the consequences of this trouble that I so love to make. (She's funny when she's mad.)
• I have a really loud voice. I mean really. You don't know loud until you've heard me roar. Ask my parents. They can hear the echo of my voice in their sleep after they've spent a day with me.
• I think the bathroom is the most interesting room in the house. There's a tub that is routinely filled up with water and bubbles and bath toys. There's a roll of toilet paper that, did you know can be unrolled almost endlessly? And best of all, there's a big round thing with water in it that they call a "pot" that is great for dumping little knick knacks into. Like the other day when I threw my toys into it...they fell with a little plop. It was lots of fun. It was a little difficult to fit the toys in since my big brother was using the pot at the time, but that's what made it even more fun!
• I LOVE blueberries. With a passion. The more blueberries there are in the world, the better the place will be. I think the reason people are often unhappy is because they've run out of blueberries. I'm not unhappy because there are always blueberries in my house.
• I can point to my tummy, head, and bottoms, and close my eyes on request. I can also roar like a tiger, bark like a dog, kut-kut-kut like a helicopter, and whistle like a cooker. My talents are many. But I don't like the cooker. There are things about it I don't understand.
• My brother gets to do this fun thing that my mom calls "timeout." Recently I got in on that too because I messed with my mom's ipod. It was fun. You get to go stand in this corner. Aaannndd....that's it I guess. Hmmm...why did I think it was so much fun? Maybe it gets old.

Anyway, so that's a little introduction. Next time, we'll talk about other fun things like the dishwasher and my mom's underwear closet. Oooh...and remind me to tell you a great new way to get your older sibling in trouble while looking totally innocent yourself. Very handy.

Bye now!
Love,
Tara

Definitely a writer in the making!

First it was the picking up of the pen at her Anna Prasanna. And now this! My little Tara is hardly talking at all even though she's 17 months old already. So obviously, I get very excited at every syllable she chooses to utter now. Imagine my joy then, when the latest clear thing she has said is....wait for it....COMMA!

Imagine the possibilities...what will she say next? My bet is on EXCLAMATION!

Conversations

Latest funny development: Vir's conversations with things. Here's a sample!

Looking at the Halloween lights on the Empire State Building: "Oh, Empire State Building! You have your orange lights on! I love when you do that!"

Playing with this shadow in the car: "Sunshine! Don't do that....why are you doing that?"

Looking at a British Airways plane taxiing on the runway: "Oh British Airways, I love you so much. I want to be on you, not on Air India."

Tara! I haven't forgotten you...as if you'd let me! You won't remember this time my little one, but I can tell you that these last few months have been unplanned and unimagined and if I haven't recorded your miracles as they happened, it hasn't been because they have been unnoticed. You turned one surrounded by people who love you and will always be happy when you're happy. You started walking in the home of your nana and nani, bringing joy and excitement when it was needed the most. Your first words - kaka (khana), nana, mamma, and papa, are thrilling and I can't wait to hear everything you have to say. You've also hit a rather unfortunate milestone by fracturing a bone since I last updated this space...let's hope we don't see any more of that. But you've been super brave and I wish I had your ability to accept and adapt to things you cannot change.

Of course, you're also a lot more of a monster than you were a couple of months ago. Gone is my quiet little baby who sat around with a bowl of cheerios all morning. In her place is a toddler with an agenda to cover as much ground as possible during the day, do as much damage as possible, make as much noise as possible, and get her brother into as much trouble as possible while maintaining the false image of an innocent and harmless baby in the woods. You're not really fooling anyone, not even your beloved nana! We know exactly how naughty you are and also that you've barely touched your potential for mischief yet. But that's exactly what we love about you and that's exactly what makes this family smile these days. Keep up the good work little one and keep some antics in store for your dad who is missing out and will have lots to catch up on:-)

Love always,
Ma-maaaaa

If he asks you, Superman does love daal!

Vir: Once there was a baby shark in an aquarium. He was very hungry. His mamma went to him and said what happened fish? Baby shark said I'm very hungry. So the mamma shark went to the big sea.

Me: And then what happened? This is a great story!

Vir: Hmm?

Me: You're telling me a story, right?

Vir: Yeah. Oh then....the mamma shark got the baby shark some meat!!!!!!!! (exclamations owned by storyteller)

And that's the exciting end to Vir's first ever coherent piece of original fiction! This is a very important development. Until now, his stories have typically taken sudden and very unrealistic turns. For example:

"...and the rabbit was crossing the river. And suddenly Superman came in and flew towards the rabbit and picked him up and flew into the sky!!!!! And then a car came and landed on the road and there was an askadent."

or

"I was going there and then there was a big fire and I flew to a lake and picked it up and threw it on the fire and I was so strong!!! And there was a car and another car and a Honda city and an askadent."

So Superman is obviously the latest obsession. He's Superman. I'm Spiderman. Tara is Supergirl. And there are a variety of Badmen throughout the day, including me when I tell him to do something he doesn't like. My dad seems to have started this obsession and he's paying for it dearly because he now has to spend hours (I really literally mean hours) making up Superman stories to tell him. You can tell he's reached the bottom of his story trunk because they're getting more and more boring. Some of them could really make you slip into a little Superman story induced short coma. I'm pretty sure that has happened to mom and me at least a couple of times. I know because I woke up dazed once and the last thing I remembered was Superman wanting to go to the bathroom and Vir not wanting to go. Or something like that.

The upside is that we're using Superman to great advantage. Vir loves doing stuff around the house now. If you want him to go throw something in the trash for example, you just need to give him a couple of seconds to put on his Superman outfit first so he can fly to the trash can. Or you can get him to eat his bowl of daal because that's obviously Superman's favorite food. One day of course, he'll know. But hopefully he would have consumed a fair bit of protein by then and Superman would have done his job to help this little kid:-)

My little elf

"Mamma, I'm so helpful. I can cut your shirt into half so you can wear it and Tara can wear one too!"

(Note to self: do not leave scissors lying around. Might cut baby. Or baby might cut shirt for other baby.)

In a generous mood

Me to my mom: I think I'm going to go out for a bit...I need to go and get my eyebrows done.
Vir: No no mamma... when you and Tara and I go back to America, I can buy you some eyebroles.