We're going on a trip!

We leave for India tomorrow. A-chan is really excited about it and has been telling every person she sees about our trip for several days now. Hopefully we've prepared her well enough for the journey - she's been educated on airports and airplanes, learned a little bit of Gujarati, loves Indian food and likes to see pictures of where we're going. I'm a little worried about everything because that's what I do - worry! But I'm also soooooo excited. I'm happy to be going back to Gujarat. I"m really happy to take A-chan with us.

Of course, I'm terrified of airplanes. Or rather, flying in them. And I haven't been able to express that fear this time out at all. I'm also terrified that A-chan would catch onto my anxiety and then the flight would become fearful for her as well. So the crying and gibbering and crushing fear that I have displayed in the past this close to an impending flight has been rigidly held back. I feel a little strange about that. My little girl is the inspiration for strength that I am sorely lacking on my own. I know it's strange that I love to travel when I'm incredibly afraid of flying, but the being there makes up for it. I just really don't want A-chan to have any glimmer of that fear.

So here we go, off for adventure, back in 18 days! With luggage a little bit less in weight and size than we took to Thailand, though 3.75 of our 5 bags is stuff for A-chan...

We Hate Shots.

Oh yes indeed we do. A-chan has pretty much been repeating that phrase most of the day. It was her three year check-up in which she was already supposed to be getting a dose of HepA vaccine but we added in the Flu shot and a Typhoid vaccine in preparation for our trip. Not happy making in any way. And we have a prescription for anti-malaria meds for her. Anti-malarials as a whole make me just cringe! I don't like them. Well, I don't like any type of meds really, but I hate anti-malarials. But the pediatrician seemed to think they were important for A-chan and so we shall give them to her. I don't think any of us are going to like it, though.

We did come to the doctor's office prepared with a box of one of A-chan's fav treats, Pocky. At first she was too upset to want any but after a few minutes many, many were consumed and she started to feel a little better. Yay for bribery! We still feel horrible, she was being such an extraordinarily good girl with the doctor and cooperating with everything and then after being so good she had to get shots and it's just not fair. Explaining to her that the shots were necessary to protect her from getting sick might have actually done some good, we're not sure.

Now out with the guilt and in with the rant: Ever notice that the check-up questionaire has some really dumb questions on it? Here's one from today - 'If you give your child a pair of scissors and a piece of paper, will he/she use the scissors to cut the paper?' Duh! Am I really going to give my 3 year old a pair of scissors and wait to see what happens? No! Scissors + toddler = badness. Even child-safe scissors. Sure, she might not cut her finger off but there are a whole lot of other things that I don't even want to think about her being able to cut with them...like hair or cat fur or electrical cords or my favorite books.... End rant.

Luggage is cool

I didn't know backpacks could do that! It has wheels and this thing I can pull on and pockets and it's pretty and it's got hello kitty on it. Can I play with it? I'm just going to go for a little walk with this. I really love my new luggage!

Can This Come Home With Us?

Another recent trend in A-chan's thought patterns: ask and ye shall receive. I'm not altogether certain that this trend began with my mother, but we believe that perhaps it did. Any time A-chan really likes something, a toy or book or decoration, at her amma's house, Amma immediately offers it to her as a gift. So when A-chan started going around her house, picking up items and asking if we could take them home it seemed a bit suspicious. But this has spread to other people's houses as well and that is where we have to start making a stand.

We understand that a grandmother's first automatic instinct is to fulfill whatever wish a grandchild might have, including giving her items from their own home. But it gets really embarrassing and problematic when we visit another child's home and A-chan goes around constantly asking, "Can this come home with us?"

Recently this trend happened at a little girl's house where we were visiting to play and the other little girl thought it a fine idea, in fact starting to offer items for A-chan to take home. At the last minute before we went through the door a tiny toy teapot was offered and the little girl asked me if A-chan could take it with her. This time I was weak and said yes, but that we would bring it back next week. While not the best solution, it was the only thing I could come up with at the time. During the days following, however, A-chan has consistently insisted that we take the toy back to her friend's house! I just hope that she isn't going to try and make it into a swap-meet or something.

Look, it's a waterfall!

Playing with elemental shape stackers after breakfast. She picked it up and showed me how it was water. Then proceeded to build and stack the pieces in a new creation, pronouncing "Look, it's a waterfall!"

All grown up

My little girl is a big girl now. :( I am so very proud of her and all of her little quirks and accomplishments but at the same time I miss the little tiny girl who was just learning to walk. It's strange to have people say all the time that they grow up so fast and hearing it so often, I've tended to start ignoring it. So it hit a little more sharply today perhaps.

It delights me that she's started to understand the vagaries of the adult mind and how to get what she wants by going sideways rather then straightforward. This past Saturday she would tell us that she was just going to go and 'look' at the big cookie on the counter and after staring at it for a few minutes she asked for one chip.

One of her newest catch-phrases is "the plan". We will tell her a scenario, something along the lines of eating dinner and then watching a video, she will respond with "I don't know if I like that plan. Hmmm, maybe we should..." And then proceed to negotiate with us until we find a plan that she agrees with. Sometimes she will come up with a plan all on her own, tell us about it and then say, "I think that sounds like a good plan." Ultimately I think this tells us how much we use this type of phrase which I hadn't realized before.

Decorating with Pumpkins

We had a lot of fun unpacking the Halloween decorations and putting them out after dinner. A-chan had chosen a plastic pumpkin when we were at a store right before DragonCon and which we had purchased and promptly hid away in the 'decoration' area. She was ready to display it tonight and enjoyed deciding where it should go. It went on the top step of her step stool first, but with advise from the safety guards it went up to the breakfast bar and then later found it's way to the dining room table where it currently remains. The big plastic Jack'o'lantern what had colored lights glowing from inside was a hit again this year. One of the first things she asked about was getting the lights turned on. The Halloween books were the biggest hit of all, though. We read through three of them before watching our 'Bottle Fairy' video. 'Black Cat Creeping' was the first to grab her attention.

Ever since we decorated she's been asking each visitor to our house, "Do you like our Halloween?" And we have continued to read all the Halloween books every day. Sometimes multiple times in a day. And in just a couple more days now we will have new halloween books to save my sanity, yes we will.

Lost Something

The past three months have mostly been a blur. We've been busy with our yearly convention schedule, which I decided needed more stress this year than ever before and volunteered for some things that I should have known were too much for me to do. And I've been kind of sick for all that time as well - just incredibly tired and unable to concentrate on anything, not feeling like doing much at all except for the things that I absolutely have to do. And I feel like I've really lost something with A-chan.

We don't play anymore. Not like we used to, not really much at all. When I have the energy to do anything it's usually spent cleaning or cooking or working on projects that need to get done before our vacation. I think it just hit me today how much things are different right now from a few months ago. I used to get down on the floor and play with cars & trucks, build towers, play trains on her train set, dance with her - all these great things that I don't do now. We're not as close as we used to be. And I've noticed some behaviour patterns that are new and mainly used for getting our attention.

But the next two days should start to change it all back in the right direction again! I'm finally getting the medical care that should help me to start feeling much better, have more energy and not be sick all the time. I'm looking forward to that end result very much and it makes the whole thing a little less scary. (It's nothing that big or bad, just something I'm pathetically terrified of that's all) I miss spending time playing with A-chan. Looking around at all the toys we used to play with together that haven't seen any use at all in the last three months makes me feel horribly guilty. I hope that I will start really feeling better soon, and will try my best to make up for it!

So here is my promise: To spend more time with A-chan doing all kinds of fun stuff like playing trains and dancing and playing soccerball and playing the harp and just everything!!

Family Friendly Flights Bill

I saw an article recently about how some people are attempting to get a law passed to make airlines show only kid-friendly films in flight. It was interesting, I'd never thought about it before. There was even some discussion on making a 'family class' seating area on airplanes.

I'm not sure yet what I think of either idea. There are certainly some films that will be shown on the flights that I don't want A-chan to see. But then again, I can't say it's fair to make all the other passengers only see Disney films either. (And of course, most Disney films I wouldn't want A-chan to see either, but they are better than some other films.) The best solution in my opinion is personal entertainment options that each passenger can choose that won't bother the rest of the people on board.

Family class seating is a neat idea. Except that having so many kids in one area might not be happy either. Say, a couple traveling with a 6 month old baby who isn't able to sleep because the other kids make noise nearby. Or the 5 year old with 'just a cough' who is able to give colds/flu to all the other children. Not that these things aren't happening anyway, of course.

Ahh, well. It will be interesting to see what happens, won't it?

Soccerball!

A-chan's newest obsession: Soccerball. Yes, that really is what she calls it - all one word. And it's kind of a bizarre reinforcement of how much one's peer effect one's life. There were originally two sources of knowledge of Soccer for A-chan, one episode of a favorite Anime series where the characters tried unsuccesfully to play a game of soccer. Second, two of her friends have started playing toddler soccer. They live in another state and the only true connection she has between the girls and soccer were some pictures of them in their outfits and having their mom tell us what they were doing in the picture.

She had been interested in Soccer because of the Anime for months, wanting to go outside and play soccerball just like they did in the show. But after seeing those pictures, well, it's a full blown obsession. To the point of wanting a soccer ball shaped mouse to replace her old panda one. That was a surprise, let me tell you! Out of all the really cute animal choices she picked the soccer ball. But it really was what she wanted cause when we finally ordered it for her she was oh so happy about it! Ketu and A-chan have been going outside in the early evenings lately and kicking around a ball in the side yard. They both seem to enjoy it, and he's been starting to teach A-chan a little bit about the game too!

Put the Gujarati away!

We leave for Gujarat, India in 3 weeks and 5 days. For the past month or so we've been attempting to cram as much of the Gujarati language into our craniums as possible, hoping that we might comport ourselves with honor while we are there. A-chan is raring to get on the plane and go, but has different feelings about us speaking a language that she can't understand.

She's been with us at every language lesson, a huge slice of cake in front of her and a bottle of applejuice to help keep her happy and occupied while we try to learn. Whenever we practice she is there listening to us. Some of it has seeped in and she can say certain things like 'Tame kem cho?' (How are you?), 'Hu majama chhu.' (I am fine.), and can count from one to ten in Gujarati. But whenever she gets frustrated with it she will tell us to "Put the Gujarati away now."

Lately as our date of departure is getting closer she has actually asked us to speak Gujarati with her a few times. As we watched a Gujarati movie last night (kind of a test to see if we could understand any of it) I wondered if she was getting any of it. The songs seemed to fascinate her but the rest was pretty much ignored. We managed to understand a few words here and there, and we were surprised by how much we enjoyed watching it!

I'm looking forward to getting to Ahmedabad and seeing how much Ketu and I have learned (or failed to learn as the case may be) and to see if A-chan absorbed more than she's letting on. I am hoping that as soon as she realizes that if she learned to speak a little Gujarati she could potentially speak to other little girls during our trip then she would pick up more words instead of being frustrated.

New songs to sing

We have two new songs to sing! The first is the Bubble song which I made up as we spent the afternoon blowing bubbles in the driveway.

Bubbles, bubbles everywhere

Rainbow bubbles in the air

Catch them high and catch them low

Catch them quick before they go!

Not very complicated, but it's nice and easy for when blowing bubbles between the lines. A-chan seemed to get a kick out of it, but she's starting to get the knack of public politeness so I can't really tell for sure if she liked it or not. It's kind of cool that she's started doing the polite 'yes, that's very nice' response and most of the time I can still tell whether she really means it or not.

The second song was "Row your boat" which was quickly hit over the head with a few word changes that would make it a more challenging song like: Row, row, row, row, row, row, row, row, row a boat. And 'trees, trees, trees gently down the stream'

We also spent a few minutes early this morning playing our doumbeks together which was awesome but not very coordinated. I need more practice, lol. A-chan had fun drumming while I did some dance practice, though. And then she did some dancing with me!