Kapaka Beta

(Read down to the very end of this blog for a seemingly valid explanation of this weird title! –And by the way, this means nothing in any worldly language whatsoever)

Pari, my angel daughter is growing smarter day by day. She is learning fast and responding to stimuli quickly. In this blog, I am writing about the latest developments since I wrote the last blog. As I submit this blog, she is 2 years 6 months of age.

Phone Skills: The next level – Pari now knows her way around with mobiles. Now that there are three phones in the house, she is aware of which mobile has which song/mp3/video which she wants to see. For example, one of her recent favorites is the song Amplifier by Imran Khan. She would get the phone to me/Pooja and say “Fier fier”, and more recently it’s a more clearer “Etti-fier fier” Once the song is on, she would nod her head to the music, raise her left hand and move the palm up and down like I normally would while grooving to good music with beats.

Secondly she is able to flip through the Iphone quickly to get to the application she is interested in. It could be the App which teaches ABC or it could be an Ant killing game or it could be the music video of the old hindi movie “Lakdi ki Kaathi, Kaathi pe ghoda” In her own dialect, she would sing along “kaathi, Kaathi-Gooooooolaaaa”.

By the way, she no longer likes songs on TV anymore …her favorite channel is Baby TV.com (a part of the Sun TV package), which teaches poems, alphabets, children songs and numbers in a fun way. In fact this channel is helping Pari pickup concepts and correct diction very easily. When the TV switches on now, Pari instantly expresses her demand by saying “TV dot Com”

Pari has learnt counting till 15 and when she looks at multiples of something, she starts to count them, though not exactly all the time. For example, a picture of two girls is interpreted as “Count…One…Two Girls!” and if there are two of my photos in an album, she says, “Count…one…two papa’s” She knows anything which is plural ends with an S. She loves listening to poems when being lulled to sleep. She speaks her two-bit to ask what she would like to hear….Example – “Pa-pe-pe” means “Pat-a-cake” poem recital, “Yes Sir, yes Sir” means going through “ba-ba black sheep” etc. Till very recently, she pronounced all fruits correctly except Banana which for which she said “E-Ba-va”. However in the last two days she has started saying Banana correctly. That said, we are going to miss listening to E-ba-va…!

Pari knows all alphabets from A to Z and what each one is for, like A for Apple, B for Ball etc. She cant write yet, but she is getting good with verbal skills and recognition, she can look at an Alphabet and tell us if it is an T, W or an A. A new game we have started is making an X, and A etc with the hands and Pari recognizes this instantly! The funniest one is E, were we need to keep both hands and one leg parallel to the ground!

Social Skills – Whenever in a mall or close to children, Pari tends to get really interactive and friendly. Her first word with a exclamation when she sees a boy is “bhaiya” and a girl is “didi”. When she sees a toddler in a pram or in her parent’s arms, she would address them as “babyyy” or, to be exact. “Bibiiii”. She volunteers to shake hands when prompted and says “Hello”. In other words she has become friendly and interactive with people and children and this fact gives me great comfort. It helps in the long run if you are affable and socially interactive. Pari loves to play around in Balloon Pens in malls. (These are round enclosures with lots of colored balls and children jump around in them and toss the balls all over the place!) This is the reason that we are contemplating whether to put her through Playschool or not – Playschools are to make children friendly and interactive and Pari already possesses these qualities in good measure!

Favourite Foods – Pari’s love for fast food continues till date. She adores Maggi and Finger fries, much like I do. Even a dig at an occasional burger or golgappas is welcome. Even if Maggi is cooking near her, she can smell it and say “Maggiiii”. Sometimes this one-word demand stretches into a wail if reassurance is not given that Maggi is on it’s way to her shortly. She has developed a very recent liking for Gulab Jamuns, an Indian dessert made from frying milk balls and immersing them in syrup. She devours them immediately when they are put before her. On occasion, she expresses her desire for them by wailing out “Jamunnnnn!” And yes, whenever she is thirsty, she simply says “Water!” And I should mention here that her diction is perfect…just as I learned years ago in Voice and Accent Neutralisation classes. Her way of saying Water is Waawter, with a slight “H” sound after the “T”. I like this!! In case she is not given water immediately when asked for, the demand turns into a high pitched wail which sounds like Waaaaaaaaaaaaterrrr! What she asks for has to be given, no matter if I am riding on a bike, in my car or watching movie in a theatre. Otherwise her demand become increasingly pronounced verbally. Popcorns are another food item she loves and demands from time to time!

Appearance and weight - As blogged earlier, Pari has gained height but lost some weight recently which has become a bit of concern. Last weighed at the doctor’s, her weight was down to 10.25 Kilos and as per the doctor it should be at least a 1.5 Kg more. About 1 month ago she has stopped breast feeding and is dependent on regular milk (which has to be fed with a spoon) and other food which we give her daily. We are trying to ensure the food is tasty and nutritious.

Looking good! – She has developed a recent liking for getting all spruced up and ready. Normally whenever her mother is the dressing table getting ready (applying Make-up, Nail Polish and Bindi) she would also demand for “Bindi” and then put her lips forward for lipstick to be applied! She loves wearing bangles and showing them off. Also she is very patient when we apply nail polish on her finger/toe nails. After getting ready, she likes to admire her look in the mirror. She looks in the mirror, points at her reflection and says, ”This is – Pari”.

And now coming to the Title of this blog. It’s another game or activity she likes. It’s a silly, no meaning poem that both me and her recite which goes like this:
Kaun jayega, Kaun Jayega, (Who will go, who will go?)
(Papa ke saath) Papa ka beta jayega! (Papa’s baby will go with papa)
She normally recites this poem with great gusto and pronounces “papa ka” as “kapa ka”. There is a jig to go with this poem too….She waives both her hands side to side and at the end of the poem, she falls flat on the ground and raises her legs to her head. This poem and the dance makes no sense at all but looks extremely cute and endearing and is now a part of her childhood memories that I am going to retain.

I’ll posting a video link soon of this, so you know exactly what this means!

On a concluding note, I have started doing what dad’s have been doing since centuries. Once I am done chasing her and tickling her, she would demand for “Elephant”. Then I get down on all fours and she would mount me. After that the “elephant” moves around a bit in the house saying “Coooooo”, with Pari also pitching in saying “Elephant say, Cooooo” for motivation!

I love every bit of this, because I know soon she will be “grown up” and “sensible” and the elephant walks and crazy dances would be a thing of the past!

More soon,

VJ

Post-script – Yesterday was 27th June 2010, when I completed 3 years in Genpact. It was a Sunday and I took Mummy, Tappu, Pari and Pooja to Splash Water Park. Pari was fearless on the slides and had great fun! She loved splashing about in the water and didn’t want to come out. It took great efforts to get Pari out of the water when we had to take her to the rides. A bribe of ice creams worked well, though!