Dora the Babysitter

Tyke loves Dora the Explorer, has loved her for nearly a year now, it was the only show that had him completely engrossed such that even my announcements that we are heading out went unheeded, we would make a grand acoustic show of keying open the main doors, slamming it shut to signal we had left without him…and he would not budge from in front of the telly. The daily 10minutes show on E-Junior wasn’t enough for him so I downloaded and made a dvd for him, he has since gotten another two dvd’s in his own collection.

Our morning routine now starts with toilet-time and then change in fresh clothes and readying for breakfast. This always means that I put on Dora, he will hand me the ‘mote’ and tell me to put it on, expectantly swiveling towards the telly, smile at the ready as stars start dancing as a cue to Dora jumping in the frame. Then we have Dora on ALL THE DAY. He will play around, jump on sofa, throw his breakfast down his high-chair, spill water, throw a tantrum or two, have me run after him to coax some food in his mouth, paint the walls with ‘shirkaals’ with his ‘kayyon,’ throw cushions down on the floor, take out his toys and make a nice obstacle course in the living room among other things…all with Dora in the background, occasionally he will glance at the screen to confirm his beloved is continuing her adventures.

Much as I held a child’s telly watching in uttermost disdain, I am now forced to bear with Dora through my days. It makes my life somewhat easier as I have since realized that she can be something of a babysitter for Saif as I work in the kitchen. And she also teaches things. All trees are ‘jungun’ so says Tyke, after he saw Dora and Boots navigate the mixed up jungle…then there are ‘muddy mountains’ ‘Balloonos’ and ‘Shwipee’ and ‘I Sheem’ as well. And the counting…uno dous tres.

Tyke can identify numbers from one to nine (we haven’t graduated to two digits yet, he is only two years after all)…in order, at random; he will be talking him out for a walk and he would go ‘aaitt’…when in mood he also counts the lift’s descent to the ground floor on our return to the apartment. However I did not realize Dora’s efficacy as a babysitter till we got him an abacus from Ikea (it was a bribe, I confess, to keep him busy and help us browse around in some peace)…he sat in the shopping cart and started counting…in Spanish…Kuno, dos, twais, kaatro,sinko, sies!

All said and done though, Dora can only contain a pre-schoolers energy levels this much. Today as I left Tyke in Dora and Boots’ care and did the dishes, I heard him shouting ‘fooono’ came in the living room to find my cell ringing and Tyke climbing atop the tv cabinet, on tip toes, reaching for our fancy shmancy wall clock! I brought him down and looked him in the eye (no more chockate eyes) and told it was not to be done. Then I went back to the kitchen and returned as I heard an ominous thud…he had climbed up again, brought down the clock and in the eight seconds it took me to come running from the kitchen, set himself on the floor to dismember the clock!

Guess Dora will have to be fired.

Amma, chockate eyes

Z and I have been married for more than three years.

I am 25 years and 92 months old.

My eye color is brown; plain old, indescriptive brown, or so I thought. Z has never made much of a fuss about them either...after all he has hazel eyes, a one-up on my ordinariness.

Tyke is two years and three months old. The other day I was trying to reason with him and tried to hold his gaze as I drilled some sense into him...he looked me in the eye and said..."Amma, chockate eyes!"

:-D

I peered into the mirror...my eyes are indeed a rich, chocolaty brown...and it took me all these years to realise that!

And of course I forgot whatever it was I wanted to teach my little adorable son.

He is charm itself and boy o boy has he started young!

hai re imagination!

Z blames television for Daanu's behaviour; his mum blames daddy and everyone else? Oh, they just think he is so cute.

I never knew, nor had I ever heard, that 30month olds had such an active imagination. It all started a month or so ago, when one fine afternoon, while I tried (quite vainly) to clean my bedroom, that the little guy came to the room and then suddenly fell to the ground clutching his throat and gasping for air. I was horrified. He started to push himself around the room on his back and then into the hall, all the while screaming, 'gow me!' (i later found out that that meant 'got me') .
He then gets up, grins at me and then, goes back to his play area to play something else. That is when I realise, that that was supposed to be a joke? He was playing 'make believe.' Duh!

That was episode one. Then came Mr. Maestro standing on the chair and waving his balloon stick; then there was the time he wrapped his blanket around his neck and said he was 'super' and then made a cloak of it and acted like royalty. Then two nights ago, at bedtime we weren't allowed to step off the bed because the bed was supposed to be a ship and anyone who got off it would drown. I was trying to get our-little-Nunu to sleep and she wanted me to walk her while her brother kept screaming that i'd get in the water 'gande'! His imagination drives us into a very tight corner sometimes.

It is amazing how fast the kids grow up and how fast I can forget. If it weren't for the blogs and the little notes scribbled here and there or the movies, i think i'd never recall anything!

Our-little-Nunu, on the other hand is that little underweight baby who beats up her giant brother, scratches him, snatches his toys, his feeder bottle and his books. Not that bhai is meek... He gives her the 10min patience rule and then bangs on her. She pulls his hair or grabs his collar and since she hasn't hair, she is at an advantage! The full fledged hammering and screaming entails almost everything. I am so afraid of her to start crawling. Mashaallah at the kids but God protect us, always.

The circus

BabyD is now 2 years old... He has a 2 month old sister and mommy now juggles like a pro. We have our very own circus now. Daddy is the ring master, mommy is the clown, D is the naughty chimp and the new baby- Nunu, is the spectator. Sometimes she cheers and mostly she boos.
Life in the circus is hard... We all try to keep each other motivated... We must entertain at all costs!

The Stork's Assistants: Long Delayed Update

BT (Before Tyke) I had compiled a list of 2008 babies, due in March end, I was 9/10th in the list. The Tyke will be four months in a week's time, InshaAllah and I haven't posted a single update since my last the update IV. In fact, I should've been pushed down the expecting list as A, my SiL's bro and SiL had a son early March, but Z, blogger had her baby take her due time in her arrival so I retained my no. 9 spot. Anyways. After update IV:
N has had her twins, a boy and a girl, all fine, hale and hearty...her husband sent me their pics, with their elder son and the new arrivals.
S, my cousin has had a baby daughter early this month, sis sent me an sms also informing me of the impending mommyhood of two more cousins...that takes up the 2008 babies count to 15!
A, SiL, had a baby boy yesterday so hoooray there too. :))
The Tyke is neatly wedged amidst all these arrivals and will have loads of playmates his age...now only if we would make sure that he's around one time or another, with these kids in the list!
Our move to Canuck-land is all set now. We go there mid-August and get some paperwork done by end of September, then return to base and head home to Pakistan (KHI-LHR-KHI) in October/November...finally returning here to see the end of the year. Next year when we fly to Canada, it would be a permanent move, InshaAllah, sometimes in May.
Also I've been thinking up loads of Tyke posts all these months, I just have to make time one of tehse days and commit them all here.

BabyD is getting bigger and bigger day by day... when we first bought his activity center (walker cum rocker cum bouncer with an activity tray) last month, the smallest height was too high for his little feet. We thought it appropriate because we didn't want him to walk just then. We expected him to bounce and rock himself and be involved in his activity tray but we soon found that he thought that we were confining him. He was learning to crawl and getting under almost everything. I found him pulling out my crochet basket (filled with my incomplete shawls and doilies and colorfu balls of thread) one day. He tugged at his tidy bag another day and he got under my dresser, the dinning table and then one evening, rolled off the bed ( I had moved for less than ten seconds). He learned to get out of his rocker and out of his stroller and was getting restless in his crib. That is when we realized, we needed something else to keep him busy. After a little search around town we found the perfect walker. It was an activity center and it had lots of little things to keep him busy. But after the first day, BabyD understood that his mum and dad were confining him. He was literally stuck there... he had teethers and rings that he could pull at but he didn't want too. He had a rubber ducky and a little blue elephant but that only made him blue and anything he touched made a sound. It irritated him and made both his parents and him, anxious. We decided to place him in his walker for only a few minutes everyday so that he could get a hang of it. It worked to the extent that he sat in it for 15minutes. And then, two weeks after we bought it, I removed the pad from under his feet just so that he could feel that he had a little more control. I converted it to a rocker and let him rock... it didn't work and so, one day while working in the kitchen I converted it to walker again and pushed and pulled at him around me. He stopped wailing and looked around. From then on, everywhere that mummy went, BabyD took her there! I would put him in his walker and we would play choo choo train. I would push on his walker and he would coo and babble and enjoy the ride around.

Last week, I placed BabyD in his walker when I came online and after a little 'quiet' time, I hear D exclaim, "Umm... aye..". I looked around to see that he was excited because he was moving. He was pushing at the ground with his little toes and that was sending the walker moving in the opposite direction. He was moving... he was mobile and he had discovered that! For once I had my camera ready and on hand to capture my sons first steps. He could only move in reverse for the first two days but now he moves around the room in all directions. It is not actually walking but he moves and that is beautiful. To me BabyD being mobile means that he now pulls on drawers and tugs on table covers and bedsheets and picks stuff off tables... it means that I have more reasons to not come online because I need my eyes on my son then on a screen and a keyboard. It means loads of work and lots of careful planning around the house. It means moving furniture and babyproofing the house but... it's OK. I don't think I ever want to stop my son from discovering stuff. More on discovery later.

BabyD took his first steps in his walker yesterday. Coincidently, it was his 6month birthday. Alhamdulillah he is six months old... walking... talking (if only a few words)... eating(almost all vegies and fruits) ... crawling and curious about the world around him. Alhamdulillah he isn't anxious around strangers... infact he loves people and going out. more later