Sahishnu's friends... (10th May 2008)
I wanted to mention Kanna's friends through the first few years of his life here...!
Kanna has a handful of friends at school as well as in the neighbourhood. And he also got intoduced to the emotions of 'being parted' with friends too!!!
One of his very few playmates at home, Sirish went to India for good last week. Initially whenI explained kanna that Sirish would be going to India, he could not accept it. But a little later, he was ready to compromise and he said, "ok fine I will play with Sirish on the internet" Someone asked him "how would you do that"and he instantly replied "I can see him on the webcam and we'll play together". Seriously I was awakened to the extent of virtual reality we are getting used to in today's world and the irony is that it is nothing but natural to the little kids here! I am only surprised that the very sense of 'togetherness' is changed by the wide spectrum of communication channels that we have now.
This gave me the idea of documenting Kanna's early-in-life friendships.
The above is a pic of Kanna with his friends Sirish, Harini and Harshini, trying to dance together on kanna's birthday.
I have to take pics of three of them playing together and a video too. Hoping to upload it asap.
At school too Kanna has so many friends... and he says his best friend is Andrew. And one monday when I dropped kanna at school, I found that Andrew was hugging him so tight until their teacher asked them to go apart. When kanna came back home I asked him about the hug and he told me Andrew, his best friend missed him so much over the weekend and so hugged him as soon as he saw him. Every other day aftercoming home from school he has tales to tell me about what he and Andrew did togehter on that day...! And these days Kanna keeps asking me to invite Andrew home some day! Hmmm.... that will be on my to-do list with considerable priority given to it! And when I invite Andrew, I shall surely post about it and pics of Andrew and Kanna together.
Sahishnu's first visit to the library... (25th March 2008)
Last weekend, we took Kanna to the Cobb County central library. I must say he enjoyed the visit very much. He was excited to see a lot of books which had all the characters he knew like Clifford, Arthur and Curious George. He was fascinated by the books about the animals, he loved when we read to him from the picture books about Gorillas, Whales, Fish and Airplanes. When I asked him what books he wanted to take home, he selected one book about Whales, and two curious George books. I was very happy to see him as excited!
It is three days after the visit to the library and I read each book to him for almost a hundred and one times. I am very glad about the little one's keen interest and love for books (this was one thing I surely wanted to inculcate in him), but it is bothering me that every other minute I have to sit with him reading a book. :).
Of all the three books he got, the one he loves the most is that about the Whales. I don't know why but these days he is most fascinated by the Oceans and the "underwater" stuff. He had learnt a great deal about whales from the book, and he tells every one he meets that there are two types of whales,one toothed and the other baleen. That the heart of a whale is the size of our car, and that baby Whales grow by hour!
He wants to watch all the videos of whales available on Youtube and now he recognises Narwhals, White whales and Humpback whales!
I must admit I am only too happy, to know that Kanna loves books and to see his curiosity and interest to learn more and more about what fascinates him! :). Yes, I am beaming as I am writing this, and I have to take a picture of Kanna in the library on our next visit, and a picture of him reading his favourite book. Will do that and publish it soon!
Had been quite some time...(7th March 2008)
since I updated on Kanna! Lots of stuff to catch up with! Kanna celebrated his 3rd birthday about four months ago, and now he knows the meaning of his name!!! He goes to school five days a week now and picked up a lot of spoken English.
The other day when I was teaching him the names of body parts I told him about forehead.. he did not agree to call it forehead saying 'no one will have four heads'! He is becoming sweetly naughty by the day! He loves playing adventure games. He is good at mimicking others , every day he comes home from school and mimics his teachers and friends. He loves music especially 'nachle nachle mere yar tu nachle' from 'Aja Nachle' and ' Righto Lefto ' from 'anukokunda oka roju'.
He is growing a little finickier when it comes to food! Eats no fruit other than banana, I have to tell him a hundred and one stories about micro-organisms and anti-bodies to get him eat vegetables and he doesn't eat anything unless he is convinced about the look and feel of it :). He loves noodles!
His favourite passtime now is to watch or listen to stories from Indian epiclore! He loves the stories of Hanuman and Ganesha! He plays their roles and hemade for himself one bow with a cloth-hanger and a rubber band! it is cute to see him play with it! He can reach the switches now and he can switch on and off the lights all by himself!
Above all he no more likes to be referred to as the little one ... he is big boy now.. that is what he says.. when he checks how tall he grew up everyday!
Happy times are here again...(3rd oct 2007)
Just as I hoped and believed, kanna did a great job at school today... he started his first project too :). His teacher traced both his hands on a paper which he is going to color and decorate and that masterpiece of art will be displayed in the school notice board...
I am a happy and proud mom... for all of you who had been wodering, and wanting to share my happiness, this explains my status message on google talk today and for the next few days to come... :)
Kanna's first day in school(2nd Oct 2007)
Today is kanna's firt day in school. I had no anticipations nor expectations about how this day would be, thought I would face it as it comes. Without any effort, I succeeded in not thiniking about how he would feel and react to this new phase of life he is going to embark on. Finally when the day came, both of us faced it.. if not very well, I can say it was not a complete disaster either.
Coming to the series of events,that took place on this significant day, I made sure not to mention anything about school that might form impressions on kanna so, he was more ethusiastic than not to go to school. He got up from bed and brushed his teeth without throwing any tantrums. He got dressed up and started to school with his back pack, and he was very happy to go to school.
When we went there, he went inside the classroom and he never even looked back to see if we were around. Comfortably placed himself near the set of toys that he liked in the classroom, and started playing with them. It was my choice (probably mistake) to stay there at the school and make sure he was comfortable all along. When the teacher was bringing them out of the classroom for a snack, he found me there and started crying and his screaming reached the maximum possible when he knew I was around but not with him comforting him when he was crying. After half an hour of wailing, crying and screaming continuously, his teacher gave in and sent him to me.
When he came back to me the first thing he did was to question me on not being there when he wanted me... what do I tell him? Finally I convinced him to go back to the classroom and he did it.. went back and played in the classroom for fifteen more minutes when dad came and picked both of us back to home.
Tomorrow would be his second day to school and after his first day's experience, I can't help thinking and worrying about tomorrow how much ever I do not want to do it. Everyone who knows kanna well says, he is a kid mature enough to handle this situation and with in no time he will be all excited to go to school and narrate stories to me when he comes back. Somewhere deep inside my heart, I believe so too, for such a sweetheart that kanna is...
But it is quite an unsettling experience to see my little one who is all attached to me and who was inseperable from me for the past three years, crying helplessly to reach me and wanting me to help him out of the whole new environment he is being introduced to. There were tears in my eyes too and I do not want to hide that fact. I know this is just 'yet-another-phase' and it will get over soon... and almost every other mother and kid go through this kind of experience, but just to reassure myself I was browing the web about first day at school and seperation anxiety material only to find people penning same emotions as mine and narrating same experience as mine. There were even people who were apprehensive about sending their kid to school because they thought the school staff were very 'impersonal' . I have to confess that I felt the same about the school staff, but guess that is how they will be... a teacher is a teacher and she can not and should not behave like a mother! I donot have any second thought about sending him to school tomorrow... cos I know that kanna has to go to school and even though he has issues to handle right now, going through all this would only empower him in being a better being and I know we can make all this even more easier to handle as we have one great asset in favour of us, it being that we understand each other very very well :). Looking forward for a better tomorrow when kanna would go to school happily and I would be eagerly waiting for him to come back and relate to me his learning experience all through the day. I assure my self that day is not far away :)
Kanna reciting rhymes (22nd sep 2007)
Kanna is sweetly reciting rhymes now.. the best one I liked is him reciting two little dicky birds with action. Watch the video I am sure you will like it too :)
Krishna Swallowed TV in His childhood?!!!
I was narrating a story to kanna, where krishna shows the fourteen worlds of Indian mythology to His mother, when she asks Him to open His mouth to make sure he was not eating sand. Just to make it comprehensible to Kanna I told him that Krishna showed all the trees, sky, oceans, etc in His mouth. Kanna told me that Krishna swallowed TV in His childhood that is why He could show all that to His mother in His mouth!!! No wonder! This is the most Tach-savvy generation!
Betty... Please come (16th April 2007)
Sahishnu, who is a real angel and a wonderful boy very cooperative but ofcourse a menace when it comes to sleeping early at night. He wants to enjoy the whole time playing with his father and he loaths being called by me to sleep. Day in and day out, I need to find new ways to convince him or to force him to go to sleep.
In the initial days when we moved to Atlanta, while I took him out for a walk, he saw the leasing manager of the community, Betty Head, warning a few boys for some mischief they had done. Sahishnu asked me what was going on and I explained him that Betty is the manager here and if anybody does any bad deed or if any one doesn't adhere to the rules of the community she warns them and punishes them severly if they do not listen. It was quite convenient for me to instill it in him that sleeping early was one of the rules of the community and if you don't sleep early, then Betty is out there to catch you.
At night if he goes cranky and doesn't sleep, Daddy dear would knock the wall with his fingers and mummy dear would tell him it's Betty knocking the door and he would immediately hug ma and go to sleep. No long stories, no unending lullabies and pleading the baby to sleep, just a knock on the wall and Betty's name.. he would sleep instantaneously.
We assuredly thought that he bought the whole story about Betty until one fine afternoon, when Sahishnu was playing with daddy and asked him to sleep. When daddy did not sleep, he went to the wall, knocked it gently with his knuckles and shouted "Betty please come-- ". My face went white.. I still can't comprehend what I felt at thattime... was it shock, disbelief.. or embarassment that he knew my trick and just gave in for God knows what the reason was!
Lesson that I learnt.. "never try to outsmart kids and of all my sonny dear"
PS: I still try and keep formulating new tricks to put him to sleep early though.. after all, I am a mother :)
First 'A' Sahishnu wrote on his own (30th April 2007)
In Atlanta, Sahishnu is now frequently listening to every one speaking English, he is intently keen on learning it. He keeps asking me the English version of everything I speak and the English meanings of all the little words he knows. That is still not enough for him, he desperately wants to talk fluent English. Here is an excerpt of conversation he had with Sindhu, in fluent English... I loved his tiny effort in trying to converse...
Sindhu : You fell down the other day.. how are you now
Sahishnu : Dhom.. (Dhom is something he uses to symbolise something that fell down)
Sindhu : Are you applying some thing there? An ointment?
Sahishnu : Tombleystish (God knows what it means :) )
Sindhu : Does it hurt you? Is it Paining?
Sahishnu : Milk, Cereal Bar (He interpreted her question in his own way and gave an apt answer according to his perception)
Growing up real fast...(27th July 2007)
Today, he is grown up and it is so evident in his every action and every word he speaks. I somehow feel he is incredibly mature for his age, and to support my feeling I have to relate this incident... I had to do the laundry today, and I asked him if he wanted to accompany me to the laundry room, his reply was that he preferred staying at home and watching his favite (sahishnu's vocab for favourite) curious George, as it was hot today. This was a welcome suggestion for me as I thought little adventures like these help him grow more confident as well as responsible. I made two trips to the laundry room, first one was short, and by the time I came back he was comfortably sitting in the comfy couch as he calls it... and by the time I came back from my second trip which took a little longer than the first one probably 10 minutes, I found him coming out of the house and waiting for me. When I wanted to make the third and last trip to the laundry room and told him that, his response was that he preferred to accompany me this time, and he explained his decission saying ' nenu malle edisthe neeku pobbem ayipothundamma ' which means, if you go and I cry for you it will be a problem for you. Then I understood he felt a little nervous when I was gone for 10 minutes before but still, he did not panic or cry just because he told me he was a brave boy and assured me he would be home till I come back. So, he did not want to be in such a situation again and he wanted me to accomany me...! Seriously, I feel very proud of him when for such little actions like these everyone who knows him considers him to be the most accomodative kid and a blessing on me.. he really is. And for the naughty part of Sahishnu, he now imitates everyone and mimics the way they speak. I froze this wonderful moment when he was pretending to be my father, Buddheesh tata as he calls him by wrapping a towel round him. And I love this snap a lot too.
After all this, one thing I must tell is that he is growing up and he is growing up real fast!!!
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