When 2 years and 4 months old

Hey dearie,

You are 2 months and 4 months and 3 weeks old. You have grown tall and you would be going to school this January.

First things first, a big thank you for everything. If not for your co-operation, I wouldn't have been able to get back to work. You got along so very well with your  grand-moms and never once gave any of us a hard time about me leaving you home. Yes, am ashamed to say that I sneak out of home every morning, unable to muster the courage to see your tears. You took it in stride and announced to everyone that 'Amma Office', once you found out that I wasn't home and thank you, you didn't bother to even miss me, thanks to your grandparents. With their help, we have been able to pull through a whole year now. Lets hope the coming years are easier.

Lets go on with you, enough of me and my stupid job(Yes darling, it would make a good set of people happy if I would just quit, but your mom being her ridiculous self, hasn't yet made up her mind to quit)

Your talks have improved in bounds and leaps. This morning, I found you playing with my credit cards (You really don't want to know about mom's rather pathetic finances and HSBC, they point blank refused to even open a credit line account , the gall. Never mind, lets get back to your story). So, I found you playing with my credit cards and I raised my voice at you. Your face  registered a change at once and turned apologetic and you said, 'Sorry , seyya maatein'(Sorry, I wouldn't do it again). Good enough to melt your mom's heart.

You still need a bottle of milk in the middle of the night. Sometimes, its more than one. My bad, I didn't make you forget your milk bottle early, because, you hardly ate anything and without your middle-of-the-night-milk-bottles, you would be starving. So, I let you carry on and you still do. I have been making a rather feeble attempt to get it out of your routine, but I definitely need to work harder at it. The night time slogan has been 'No paal, Only thanni' (No Milk, only water), but you somehow learned to create your own , with absolutely no help from us. You counter slogan 'No thanni, only paal'

Your drawing and your colouring are master pieces of art(Yeah, I know,  I idolise you, who dares to say against it? Even if they say so, Mommy goes deaf when that happens. Did I tell you that Mommy is horribly dumb when it comes to multi-tasking. The most popular example that your daddy recalls time and again is that, when am browsing or working, I go deaf. I am not taking any blame for it, coz its the genes, you mommy's dad's genes at that. Sorry, lets get back to your story.). You can recognise quite a few alphabets and most of the colours and all the numbers until 10. You also do a few puzzles and I think you genuinely have a flair at puzzles, especially shapes. IPhone played a good part at it and again, you have been such a thoughtful child and played with it with much care and caution (touch wood, touch wood). Your ABCs are still vague.

Its really really cute when you put our your act of taking pictures and keep saying, 'mile.. mile.. please...mile'(Smile).

You definitely have more manners than any of us at home, you shame us with you frequent thank yous and please. Well, you could definitely work on the tone of your 'please', it changes in intensity when we don't give it to you the first time you demand. However, am loving it all and sometimes, makes me think you are growing fast. You still give me sloppy kisses and big hugs and you still run around naked after your bath ;)

and today you are 2 months, 5 months and 3 days and it took you a while for your mother to get this post done.

What Your Blog says about you

Well, I came across this link, http://www.typealyzer.com/. Its a blog analyser, that says what kind of blog it is(Not that I already don't know. Its still fun to see what category of generalisation does it fit into.)

All you need to do is give the URL of your blog(For dummies, its the website address of your blog like http://.....,  If you still don't get it, its time you unplug your computer, go to the top floor of your block, spit, exactly thrice, and throw your comp out from there, please. ;) )

I tried with my blog on Nephy and here is the result.

ESFP - The Performers

 The entertaining and friendly type. They are especially attuned to pleasure and beauty and like to fill their surroundings with soft fabrics, bright colors and sweet smells. They live in the present moment and don´t like to plan ahead - they are always in risk of exhausting themselves.



The enjoy work that makes them able to help other people in a concrete and visible way. They tend to avoid conflicts and rarely initiate confrontation - qualities that can make it hard for them in management positions.

Look who.....

One sunny morning, I was hanging out my laundry and there was this lovely little yellow colored birdie who came flying down to sit on the hanging rod. By the time, I returned back with a camera to capture her, she was long gone. But, there was somebody else waiting for my return and who like a well-mannered professional, graced a few poses for my blog. A red and black insect on my bamboo hanging stick. If you have been to Singapore, you would be acquainted with the rather unusual laundry drying rod. A few bamboo sticks are used to hang out the clothes to dry in the sun. Quite ingenious, and I love the idea. However, I have had a few not-so-good incidents in the past, of dropping my clothes and I do go knocking on the folks who live in the floor below us asking  favours. There had been times, when I had dropped a bamboo stick with Nephy's bed clipped on to it. It has already been a week since this happened, but I could still see the bed up on the tree...drying!! Hope, they don't take me in for killer litter. Considering the fact, that I live on the 15th floor, the bamboo rod with the bed would perfectly fit into the definition of a killer litter. 

All said and done, its absolutely lovely to look down on the top of the trees from up high, and to see clothes hanging out floor after floor after floor. God save me, if am falling in love with Singapore and I have feeling that I slowly am.....

This is what we did today!!

I have been working from home this week. I am eternally thankful to the great God above to have allowed such things to happen, and of course, the team. I have been trying to put in my best through this week. but, its a friday, and I decided to chill out a bit with my little girlie.

Nephy and I put up some cartoons on the bedroom wall and had a fun time playing. Here are some pics

Be responsible & Be informed!!

I came across this link on abused children.http://www.myspace.com/abused_children.

I had always refrained from reading disturbing topics, but this one tugged at my heart. As like the average human, I did and still do think of child abuse as something that happens in a world away. However, I have decided to educate myself and the others about the reality and how it could really happen in the safe haven called, home.

Listen to this....."The Biggest Myth about Child abuse:-
 .... is that the dangers to children come from strangers. In most cases. the perpetrator is someone the parent or the child knows and is often trusted by the child and family." That should be revelation to some.

There is no point in closing our eyes and assuring ourselves that this is not something that would happen to any of our kids. The threat is real and unfortunately, many us live far away from reality. The least that can be done is to make sure that our children are aware of what is a good touch and a bad touch, and nothing wrong in teaching them as early as possible. The child has got to know to say No or at least be able to know that its wrong and mom or dad need to know about it. When the child reports or even hints at it, as responsible parents, we should ACT and lest us not brush it under the carpet. Worst of all is reprimanding a child for it. "BELIEVE her when she tells you....YOU might be the ONLY ONE she tells!!!". It might not be our own kid, it might even be the neighbor's kid confiding in us. I wouldn't fool myself I would live peacefully ever, if I were to shrug it off and allow it to go on.

There is the most important CYBERSAFETY to be taught t children, "Anything you post online, anyone can see. Think before you post."

~~CYBERSAFETY FACT SHEET~~


There are an estimated 77 million kids online today.

There are more than 40,000 chat rooms where children can meet child predators.

Pedophiles lure kids in with games, establish relationships with them on-line, then arrange to meet face-to-face.

75 percent of children are willing to share personal information online about themselves and their family in exchange for goods and/or services. (gifts, free samples, free online games, etc.)

Chat rooms and instant/private messages are two main tools pedophiles use to contact children on-line.

Online child pornography/child sex exploitation is the most significant crime problem confronting the FBI that involves crimes against children.

There is a 100% chance of a child meeting a predator in a chat room.



Be aware of what the child does on his computer. Its better to watch and curtail cyber liberties and actively monitor the child's internet activities. (Yes, he is bound to get angry and he would probably lock himself in his room. Well, its much better than he being in a wretched place with a sex predator or other filthy beings.)

For starters on cyber safety, my parents made it a rule that the computer stays in the living room until we grew up and became adults. Thats a good start!!

Thanks Mom and Thanks Dad and Thanks Prav!!(You guys sure did your best to watch out for me.)

From the mouth of a baby

Oh God! She is talking!!

I should have written this about a month back , but the delay is because I still haven't recovered from being amazed. It was like one fine morning, the little missy decided that she would talk and tats exactly what she did. No wonder am amazed.

Until she turned 2, I was quite worried because the number of words that she spoke was on the worrisome side. I was foolish enough to ask my doc if she needs speech therapy , which thankfully, she didn't recommend, the doc  instead asked me to just give her some more time. Me being me, read and read and read and read about speech therapies and early intervention and what not, and worried myself sick. All said and done, for the official record, Nephy was 2 years and 1 month old, when she started talking.

After all these months of teaching her my name, she finally said Bessie-amma. Oh, its nice to hear from you baby. For that matter all of us are addressed by our names. Anto-daddy or Anto-appa, Def Aasa, Raj Thatha and such.

Some snippets of her talk :-

Just a minute back, I took her for a night-time bath and her dad switched off the TV which was playing her all time favourite , Barney. She went to her dad and said 'Why Off TV'. What... what was that? Well, time she learnt the answer to such questions 'Because, I said so!!'

Another one, she said right now. 'Amma wait, papa go $$$$', looks like she has an urgent business to attend to.

Some not so desirable sentences of hers:-
'Appa Vaa moodu' (Appa, shut up) : This one has a history, and the world should know about it. One day, Anto and I were arguing about something and exasperated(as usual), he turned to Nephy and said 'Baby say, amma vaay moodu'(Amma, Shut-up). The plan back-fired. Incensed, she fired back saying 'Appa Vaay moodu'. Oh Boy, looks like its girl power.

'Chumma eru'(Oh, keep quiet) : The other day, my mom was saying something to me. In jest, I said 'Amma, chumma eru' and she picked that up.
Otherwise, we haven't accidentally taught her anything offending (I hope).

However, some words that she started speaking while young still remain the same.
Ammachi(Grandma) is still Aasa.
Teletubbies are Po, Lala, kaba-kaba(Dicksy) and Jakkamma(Tinky-winky), don't ask me why.
Barney is still Ba.
Water is stil tha-tha.

Although, I primarily use Tamil, she seems to be picking up the english words faster. Maybe because, she learns them from her friends in the playground, which is quite a number I should say. Her social life seems to be blooming too.

The little one is bossing us around with her new found tongue saying  'Go there', 'Open that', 'Close that'(However, we still only know 'that' and 'there', whoever has heard of 'this' and 'here'). My little baby bully!!

Ah Loy Thai

I am not a foodie, so if I am writing a blog on a it, then its absolutely safe to try even if you are the finiky-est eater in the world. To add credit, it was Anto who wanted to go there. So, thats double guarantee, I tell you.

Its a simple and a humble eatery, hidden inside Shaw Towers. A thai restaurant, Ah Loy Thai. The place was quite full and there was a queue too. We managed to get a table and it was Anto's boss' name that did the magic. I had no idea about Thai food except for Mango Salad and Tom Yum Soup. However, the latter wasn't my favourite because I always found it too hot and too spicy, almost a torture. I was wary, and Anto went ahead and ordered the following.

Tom Yum Soup
Kailan
Mango Crispy Chicken
Pandan Chicken
Mangp Salad
Kumquat Juice

The Juice came first, a tall glass of  yellow liquid, had a slight lemon tinge, but very refreshing and very different. 

The Tom Yum Soup, good enough for 3-4 people. We ordered Tom yum with prawns and mushrooms, and what a surprise it was. Simply just great. Wasn't too hot and too spicy, just perfect. I would strongly recommend it. 

The Mango Salad, with chillies and a watery sauce on it.

Mango Crispy Chicken, as the name says, its crispy chicken and again it was the sauce that was totally 'grrrrrrrrreat'

Pandan Chicken , rolled in palm leaves. Well, the tomato chilli sauce did it again

Verdict : I think this place is a definite go-go. The food is absolutely fabulous and sure is interesting.

Pictures : Flicked from other sites on Ah Loy Thai. Oops...Sorry

Location : Shaw Towers, Singapore.

Thanks To : Anto!!