So Sia and I were driving to a friend's place at night. Since it was late, I put on "Twinkle Twinkle" on the CD. This version is very soft. Sia started singing in an equally soft voice, almost whispering. After singing the first two lines softly, she yelled "Good job, Sia". I couldn't help but laugh out loud.
Tuesday, August 19, 2014
Sunday, August 17, 2014
Siyona makes up a joke and a song..
This is super cool, according to me. Two separate incidents.
First one. Today I asked Sia (like I have done a million times), "Mumma ka baby kaun hai ?" Usually the answer is "Sia". Today she says; with a very mischievous smile; "Sumeet". It was almost like she was trying to make a joke.
This conversation took place during bed time. There is a nursery rhyme that goes like this:
The farmer in the dell
The farmer in the dell
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The farmer in the dell
I made up something for her.
Sis goes to bed
Sia goes to bed
Hi-ho, the derry-o
Sia goes to bed.
She came up with the addition of
Baby goes to bed
Baby goes to bed
Ho-ho the derry-ho
Baby goes to bed.
Then Sumeet came in to say goodnight. Since he is traveling tomorrow, he was telling her that he will be leaving in the morning, he will be back on Friday etc. She suddenly starts singing -
Papa goes away,
papa goes airplane,
Hi-ho, the derry-o
papa goes airplane.
Both of us were stunned. She made up the whole thing!
First one. Today I asked Sia (like I have done a million times), "Mumma ka baby kaun hai ?" Usually the answer is "Sia". Today she says; with a very mischievous smile; "Sumeet". It was almost like she was trying to make a joke.
This conversation took place during bed time. There is a nursery rhyme that goes like this:
The farmer in the dell
The farmer in the dell
Hi-ho, the derry-o
The farmer in the dell
I made up something for her.
Sis goes to bed
Sia goes to bed
Hi-ho, the derry-o
Sia goes to bed.
She came up with the addition of
Baby goes to bed
Baby goes to bed
Ho-ho the derry-ho
Baby goes to bed.
Then Sumeet came in to say goodnight. Since he is traveling tomorrow, he was telling her that he will be leaving in the morning, he will be back on Friday etc. She suddenly starts singing -
Papa goes away,
papa goes airplane,
Hi-ho, the derry-o
papa goes airplane.
Both of us were stunned. She made up the whole thing!
Thursday, August 14, 2014
Siyona understands mirchi...
A couple of days ago, when she ate something spicy; she actually said: " Teekha ho gaya, paani peena hai" :)
Thursday, June 26, 2014
The little talking monster..
During bedtime tonight, we had a couple of conversations with Sia. The first one went like this:
Me: You know Sia, abhi Ami Tai ka birthday aayega. (It will be Ami Tai's birthday soon)
Sia: (starts singing) Happy Birthday to Ami Tai.
Sia: Cake khayenge(will eat cake).
This was followed by singing Happy Birthday to Maushi. Maushi is Ami's mother, my friend Kavita. I am amused by her association of singing "Happy Birthday" with a cake.
In the other conversation of the night, she put two sentences together. While sleeping, Sia alternates between wanting to snuggle and "No Touching" phase. She literally says that - No Touching. Today, she added a sentence. It was "No touching, I am sleeping". It's cool to hear her say that.
Me: You know Sia, abhi Ami Tai ka birthday aayega. (It will be Ami Tai's birthday soon)
Sia: (starts singing) Happy Birthday to Ami Tai.
Sia: Cake khayenge(will eat cake).
This was followed by singing Happy Birthday to Maushi. Maushi is Ami's mother, my friend Kavita. I am amused by her association of singing "Happy Birthday" with a cake.
In the other conversation of the night, she put two sentences together. While sleeping, Sia alternates between wanting to snuggle and "No Touching" phase. She literally says that - No Touching. Today, she added a sentence. It was "No touching, I am sleeping". It's cool to hear her say that.
Siyona eats "most"
Siyona's daycare teachers always complain that we give her way too much food. Today was one of the days, when she finished most of it. Here's her sheet for proof. I almost want to frame it...
Wednesday, June 25, 2014
No Mumma!!!
Siyona is a complete daddy's girl. So much that when Sumeet is around and I touch her, I get a "No Mumma". I am used to that now. But once it was Sumeet who was doing something that she did not want him to. Instead of saying "No Papa", she still said "No Mumma". Out of habit, I guess. I don't know whether to laugh or cry.
Siyona understands green light !!!
This happened with Sumeet today. Sumeet and Sia were driving home from daycare. At traffic lights, she was getting excited when the lights were green, yelling "green, green". Also sulked a little bit at the red lights.
On the way to daycare today, Sumeet told her to go to sleep since she was up very early today. After a few minutes, Sumeet turned back to check on her to see if she was sleeping. She put her hands on her face and started repeating "I am sleeping, I am sleeping". It is great to see her actually understanding and responding. One of the things I was eagerly waiting for.
On the way to daycare today, Sumeet told her to go to sleep since she was up very early today. After a few minutes, Sumeet turned back to check on her to see if she was sleeping. She put her hands on her face and started repeating "I am sleeping, I am sleeping". It is great to see her actually understanding and responding. One of the things I was eagerly waiting for.
About Siyona..
So I walk into Sia's daycare to pick her up. She is very happy to see me and comes running towards me, all good as usual. But then her teacher drops the bomb. I get her first complaint - sort of. Her teacher said that she has been pushing around other kids, literally; for no reason. I am in such dichotomy over this. On one side, I am upset that she is not behaving and on the other I am secretly glad that she is not a very seedha-saadha child.
Everybody who grew up in India can probably identify with what I am going to talk about next. As a baby or toddler, whenever I stumbled or hit something;my parents would kind of hit the accused floor or wall or toy and say 'hat re'. Now, we were doing the same thing with Sia. It works wonders; very quick calming down. So yesterday while leaving home, we forgot Sia'a baby inside. We came back inside and I left her by the door and ran inside to gt her doll. I wasn't paying attention and hit my shoulder on the wall. My reaction was a big Ouch but I kept moving. And I heard Sai saying 'hat re'. I turn back to see her hitting the wall and saying 'hat re' multiple times. It was adorable, at least according to me.
Everybody who grew up in India can probably identify with what I am going to talk about next. As a baby or toddler, whenever I stumbled or hit something;my parents would kind of hit the accused floor or wall or toy and say 'hat re'. Now, we were doing the same thing with Sia. It works wonders; very quick calming down. So yesterday while leaving home, we forgot Sia'a baby inside. We came back inside and I left her by the door and ran inside to gt her doll. I wasn't paying attention and hit my shoulder on the wall. My reaction was a big Ouch but I kept moving. And I heard Sai saying 'hat re'. I turn back to see her hitting the wall and saying 'hat re' multiple times. It was adorable, at least according to me.
Monday, June 9, 2014
Trip to Mackinac Island, MI
I haven't posted anything in a while. I am way too lazy to do it but I am going to try again. Hopefully, I will be more regular. I want to at least document things about Siyona before I forget them. I have wanted to do that since the day she was born. But here I am twenty months later, writing up the first one.
I needed to do "something" for Memorial Day Weekend. When it comes to me, "something" usually translates to travel. So I was scouting places. My first choice was Shenandoah National Park but for various reasons, it did not work out. So we decided to go to our almost default option - Michigan. And Mackinac Island near the Upper Peninsula of Michigan won the lottery this time. Sumeet had never been there so it was a good choice.
We were leaving on Friday evening. The plan was to fly to Detroit, stay at a friend's place and start driving on Saturday morning. We were planning to visit a couple of places on the drive to Mackinac Island. We wanted to get on the island by late afternoon. Of course, things never go according to plan.
The flying to Detroit part was uneventful. Which is great when you are flying with a toddler. To save money, we did not buy Siyona a seat. So she took turns by sitting in my lap or Sumeet's. She is still small enough to be able to stand in the space in front of the seat. At one point, she slid down to the space, stood up and says to me- Sia's turn. I had to get up and give her my seat. She sat on it and tried to put the seat belt on! I am always amazed at what she comes up with. After this, Sia and I took turns sitting on Sumeet's lap. Win-win!
We were late leaving the next morning, nothing unexpected there. Zhendan, Chen and their new family member Carolyn were joining us too. We all couldn't fit in one car so we drove separately. We stopped by on the way at Zhendan's new house. Very nice place and I loved their kitchen lights. Good choice, Chen!
We were planning to drive through a scenic road called Tunnel of trees. It goes from Harbor Springs to Cross Village, a very pretty drive by the shores of Lake Michigan. We had driven across the same road in 2011, with Siddhu and Preeti. It was fall that time and incredibly beautiful. On the drive there, Siyona slept for almost 3 hours. What an angel! There are only sometimes that you can call her an angel, most other times she is too naughty for that particular word. But I definitely don't mind her being naughty.
We stopped at a place called 'Bearded Dog Lounge' for lunch. Even with that name, they did not let Carolyn join us for food. So Chen and Zhendan took turns babysitting her. The food was great,even Siyona enjoyed it. Some more pictures and back on the road again.
We reached Harbor Springs and by this time we had realized that there was going to be no tunnel of trees. The trees were there for sure, but they were all still bare- zero leaves. So we drove and stopped at places to take in the lake views, which were stunning. And we stopped at the same place we had stopped at two years ago, let Siyona and Carolyn run around a bit. Even though the trees were bare, the ground was carpeted with white flowers.
After all the dilly-dallying, we finally reach Mackinaw City and got ready to take the ferry across to the island. The car ride along the curvy tunnel of trees road had already made me queasy. I was not looking forward to a 40 minute boat ride. But the ferry ride was only 18 minutes. Misleading internet research but I did heave a hugh sigh of relief.
This was Siyona's first boat ride. Can you imagine, we live in Florida and we had to fly to Detroit, drive for 4 hours to get her on a boat? Anyway, she really enjoyed it. Thankfully she did not get my motion sickness gene. The boat had three levels. The lowermost one was covered and the upper two were decks. We went to the top one and it was cold. Sia kind of liked the wind; but did not as well. She wanted to be in it but would turn her face around immediately. For the last 10 minutes, we went to the secure, non-windy first level of the boat. Sia still enjoyed watching the waves from the window.
On reaching the island, we had to wait for an hour for our taxi. That was quite boring. It finally arrived and it took us about 30 minutes to get to our hotel which was about 2 miles away. The reason: look at the taxi.
The ride was very very pretty. We rode on to a hill and the views of the lake were stunning. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures. We made it to the hotel and the restaurant in our hotel was closing. As we were too tired for another carriage ride, we had dinner at out hotel itself. Unfortunately, that meant we had to skip the sunset viewing. But it worked out. The restaurant had a pretty good view of the lake with Mackinac bridge. And after dinner, we let Sia play in the lawn and we enjoyed a glass of wine together. A wonderful evening!
All three of us headed back to our room and literally were asleep in minutes. Barely, any lullaby or stories for Siyona.
Next morning, we slept in a bit, had breakfast and headed to town. The difference between having a baby and not having one - By the time we started our bike ride around the island, Zhendan and Chen had already finished theirs. Actually, we should not blame the child. We have never made it out early, even just the two of us. But I did manage to take some pictures of Sia on the hotel's lawn/meadow.
Anyway, the lines for the bikes were long. We finally got the bikes and started our ride. It was a beautiful day, the water sparkled blue and the sun felt good. We started riding, took a few stops. One of them was Arch rock, quite pretty. Further along the ride, we bumped into another of his colleagues. You could see the difference between a Michigan kid and a Florida one. Sia was all bundled up and he was in shorts :-)
Somewhere along the middle of our ride, little miss Siyona decides that she has had enough of the burley and starts howling. Sumeet carries her for a bit while I drag the tandem bike and the burley. We took turns with Siyona and the bike and the bike was easier, at least according to me. Sumeet had this brilliant idea that I sit in the burley with her and he can ride the bike on his own. He really knows his daughter because that worked! Soon, we got to a little cafe, where Siyona got pizza and a milkshake. After that, she had no problems sitting in the burley by herself. She was just hungry.
I needed to do "something" for Memorial Day Weekend. When it comes to me, "something" usually translates to travel. So I was scouting places. My first choice was Shenandoah National Park but for various reasons, it did not work out. So we decided to go to our almost default option - Michigan. And Mackinac Island near the Upper Peninsula of Michigan won the lottery this time. Sumeet had never been there so it was a good choice.
We were leaving on Friday evening. The plan was to fly to Detroit, stay at a friend's place and start driving on Saturday morning. We were planning to visit a couple of places on the drive to Mackinac Island. We wanted to get on the island by late afternoon. Of course, things never go according to plan.
The flying to Detroit part was uneventful. Which is great when you are flying with a toddler. To save money, we did not buy Siyona a seat. So she took turns by sitting in my lap or Sumeet's. She is still small enough to be able to stand in the space in front of the seat. At one point, she slid down to the space, stood up and says to me- Sia's turn. I had to get up and give her my seat. She sat on it and tried to put the seat belt on! I am always amazed at what she comes up with. After this, Sia and I took turns sitting on Sumeet's lap. Win-win!
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We were late leaving the next morning, nothing unexpected there. Zhendan, Chen and their new family member Carolyn were joining us too. We all couldn't fit in one car so we drove separately. We stopped by on the way at Zhendan's new house. Very nice place and I loved their kitchen lights. Good choice, Chen!
Siyona was very excited to see Carolyn and she could say her name too, quite clearly. Sumeet and I sometimes think that we hallucinate and hear her talk so much.I started taking pictures right away, and guess what? Siyona posed so well with the Xue family. I dont believe the three of us have any picture together, that is that good. Don't they all look happy and great together?
We were planning to drive through a scenic road called Tunnel of trees. It goes from Harbor Springs to Cross Village, a very pretty drive by the shores of Lake Michigan. We had driven across the same road in 2011, with Siddhu and Preeti. It was fall that time and incredibly beautiful. On the drive there, Siyona slept for almost 3 hours. What an angel! There are only sometimes that you can call her an angel, most other times she is too naughty for that particular word. But I definitely don't mind her being naughty.
We stopped at a place called 'Bearded Dog Lounge' for lunch. Even with that name, they did not let Carolyn join us for food. So Chen and Zhendan took turns babysitting her. The food was great,even Siyona enjoyed it. Some more pictures and back on the road again.
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We reached Harbor Springs and by this time we had realized that there was going to be no tunnel of trees. The trees were there for sure, but they were all still bare- zero leaves. So we drove and stopped at places to take in the lake views, which were stunning. And we stopped at the same place we had stopped at two years ago, let Siyona and Carolyn run around a bit. Even though the trees were bare, the ground was carpeted with white flowers.
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After all the dilly-dallying, we finally reach Mackinaw City and got ready to take the ferry across to the island. The car ride along the curvy tunnel of trees road had already made me queasy. I was not looking forward to a 40 minute boat ride. But the ferry ride was only 18 minutes. Misleading internet research but I did heave a hugh sigh of relief.
This was Siyona's first boat ride. Can you imagine, we live in Florida and we had to fly to Detroit, drive for 4 hours to get her on a boat? Anyway, she really enjoyed it. Thankfully she did not get my motion sickness gene. The boat had three levels. The lowermost one was covered and the upper two were decks. We went to the top one and it was cold. Sia kind of liked the wind; but did not as well. She wanted to be in it but would turn her face around immediately. For the last 10 minutes, we went to the secure, non-windy first level of the boat. Sia still enjoyed watching the waves from the window.
On reaching the island, we had to wait for an hour for our taxi. That was quite boring. It finally arrived and it took us about 30 minutes to get to our hotel which was about 2 miles away. The reason: look at the taxi.
The ride was very very pretty. We rode on to a hill and the views of the lake were stunning. Unfortunately I do not have any pictures. We made it to the hotel and the restaurant in our hotel was closing. As we were too tired for another carriage ride, we had dinner at out hotel itself. Unfortunately, that meant we had to skip the sunset viewing. But it worked out. The restaurant had a pretty good view of the lake with Mackinac bridge. And after dinner, we let Sia play in the lawn and we enjoyed a glass of wine together. A wonderful evening!
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| Siyona looking through the menu |
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| Wine and sunset... |
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| Mackinac bridge |
All three of us headed back to our room and literally were asleep in minutes. Barely, any lullaby or stories for Siyona.
Next morning, we slept in a bit, had breakfast and headed to town. The difference between having a baby and not having one - By the time we started our bike ride around the island, Zhendan and Chen had already finished theirs. Actually, we should not blame the child. We have never made it out early, even just the two of us. But I did manage to take some pictures of Sia on the hotel's lawn/meadow.
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Somewhere along the middle of our ride, little miss Siyona decides that she has had enough of the burley and starts howling. Sumeet carries her for a bit while I drag the tandem bike and the burley. We took turns with Siyona and the bike and the bike was easier, at least according to me. Sumeet had this brilliant idea that I sit in the burley with her and he can ride the bike on his own. He really knows his daughter because that worked! Soon, we got to a little cafe, where Siyona got pizza and a milkshake. After that, she had no problems sitting in the burley by herself. She was just hungry.
We had to head back to main land soon after returning to main street unfotunately. When we got back on the ferry, Siyona started saying"Uppar jana hai" which translated to "want to go upstairs". I am surprised that she remembered that the boat had levels. We were planning to sit downstairs but she wouldnt let us.
We reached back, had dinner at a place Sia chose- a pizza place. I can't believe we are already listening to her. At the restuarant, she kept saying "pizza, pizza" everytime someone else's order was delivered. The pizza we ordered had banana peppers on them and I was picking them off for her. She tried one and loved them. Another surprise.
We stayed to watch sunset over Lake Huron and then headed home. We went back and forth over staying for the sunset. We had a four hour drive in front of us and sunset was at 9:15 pm. Boy, did we pay for that? Sia woke up at around 12:45 and was very upset. She did not calm down even after a couple of stops. Finally, she calmed down with m&ms. Lesson learnt, always always carry chocolate.
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It was a very short trip but great. We had a laid back vacation for once and those kind are growing on me. I would have no problem going back to island and spending a few days. There were tons of things that I wanted to do there. But an experience that I highly recommend.
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