Few hours of baby sitting

knot2share · Jan 20, 2010

<o:smarttagtype namespaceuri="urn:schemas-microsoft-comffice:smarttags" name="time"></o:smarttagtype> It was a long day at work and my hubby returned home looking so tired, that he quickly had his dinner and decided to hit the bed early. As he was walking to the room, he remembered that he had met my cousin on the train and she had wanted to talk to me. So I called her immediately and she asked me if it was okay for her to leave her daughter the following day at our place. Its school holidays at the moment and since both my cousin and her hubby are working, they decided to leave their daughter with me for a few hours. I had already started thinking of what I could do when she came home the next morning. I am quite an apprentice when it comes to playing with kids and keeping them entertained.

My cousin dropped her daughter at our place the following morning. She is 6 yrs old and she had her little pink bag full of activity books and was wearing a purple fluffy jumper on top of her pjs and a pink thong (very fancy looking thongs with some shiny stuff all over).

“Where is S uncle? Has he gone to office?”

“No”

“Is he still sleeping (with a naughty smile)?”

“No, he is in the shower and getting ready to go to office.”

“I did not have my breakfast. Can I have it with you?”

“Of course you may. What would you like?”

“Hot chocolate?” So that was her idea of breakfast and I agreed to make her one.

Hubby left for office and the little madam pulled out her goodies from her pink bag. It had a box of multi coloured beads and the string to make jewellery, a fun thing called Beado (if I am right) where you learn and make interesting designs using beads without the string. It has a transparent plate with holes on it. The pack also comes with some designs that you can make. So you pick a design and place the design under the plate and use that as a prop and make the design with coloured beads on the plate. Then once the design is done, there is a small can of spray (child friendly of course) which is used on the design and left for 15 minutes to dry. The beads then stick to each other and the design is done. It was quite an interesting piece of item. Then of course she had books to read, colour, draw and a booklet of multiplication tables.

“Amma told me to learn 2 tables and 3 tables today. You know, I can write 1 table very easily. Can I show you?”

“Sure! Lets do that.” So I got her a scribbling pad and she began 0 times 1 is 0, 1 times 1 is 1, 2 times 1 is 2, 3 times 1 is 3……….. "I know 1 table very well. Can you ask me a difficult question with 1 table? I will tell you the answer S aunty.”

“mmmm Ok, what is 93 times 1?” I asked trying to make it sound very difficult.

“It is 93!! See I told you I know well" and we both laughed.

Then we went ahead with 2 tables and 3 tables and I tried to keep her occupied by timing her to see which one she knew very well and could write faster. She was eager to do the timing tests too but got distracted many times in between and one typical distracted conversation was -

“Do you like lemons?”

“No, I don’t eat them on their own. But I like to squeeze them on salads or chicken sometimes.”

“I love eating lemons. They taste so wonderful. Do you have any?”

“No I don’t have any at the moment.”

“OK, next time when I come here, I want you to get one for me. Add that to your shopping list S aunty.”

This was the second item to be added as once when she had come home and wanted to colour, we had no colour pencils at home. So she complained to my hubby and had asked us to buy one set and keep it handy for her to use when she visited. Now lemon was the second item.

After an hour of writing multiplication tables, little missy got tired and she complained that her hands were aching and wanted a break! So I let her watch Finding Nemo movie while I took the time to surf Indus Ladies. She suddenly asked me -

“Do you know what is Oops button S aunty? My teacher showed me what Oops button is and I know it. Can I show you?”

I had never heard of anything called Oops button and was really thinking hard to find out what it was. Unable to get the answer, I asked her to show me what it was. She came and pointed out to a key on the computer keyboard. It was the BACKSPACE key.

“When you make a mistake what do you say first? Oopss….and you use this key to rub the mistake. So my teacher told me that this is Oops button!” I was impressed and so that was my lesson for the day.

After the movie was over, it was time for lunch and I was heating up some curd rice and subji and had made omelettes already for her since she loves eggs. Immediately there came a voice “My stomach is aching. I don’t want to eat and I don’t like curd rice.” I knew this was coming as little missy is a slim beauty. She eats very little but she still has truck loads of energy to do everything which amazes me. I managed to convince her and feed her curd rice and subji and ended up watching Finding Nemo the second time. Kids can watch the same thing over and over again if they love it. This was another observation.

After lunch, she wanted to do 4 tables for sometime and then we both sat down to make some bracelets and necklaces with her kit and some designs with Beado. It was fun. She made a bracelet for me too. Very soon her father came to pick her up and she left. It was nearly <st1:time minute="0" hour="17">5pm</st1:time> and I had done no house work at all during the day, not even had a shower. What happened to all the time? How do all the mums manage I wondered. I get started with my house work in a mad rush…..

Kamalji · Jan 20, 2010

Dear Knot,

You made me wait months for a blog from u, and i must say it was worth the wait.what a wonderful blog, i too did not know how time passed reading your blog.

She must be a great joy to have over eh ! Lemons, pencils , Nemo eh ! And then curds and rice.Wow,.She must have had a great time with u, and i can say the same about u too

I love kids, read one blog of mine, posted maybe 6 months back, called Chutku, a neighbourhood kid, with pictures , and u will know how much i love kids, preferably the neighbours for u an play with them when u want to, and return them when they cry.HAHA

Superb one, and worth the wait Knot, or rather S Aunty :rotfl:drowning

Regards

kamal

and i am pleased as punch, to be able to give the first FB, otherwise Viji beats me to it.HAHA

deraj · Jan 20, 2010

Dear K2S

So sweet of the kid. BTW what is her name?

iyerviji · Jan 20, 2010

Dear Jayshree

S Aunty so you had a lovely time with the 6 year old. She seems to be very smart. Ya baby sitting is not so easy. Nice to learn about the backspace button from her. So she is good in tables. Children are all good while playing and other things but when it comes to eating some are fussy. I think you took good care of her not evenattending to your work

Superb blog very well narrated. Enjoyed reading it

love
viji

ALPA · Jan 20, 2010

oh my dear K2S,

you had a great time learning from missy!!!. i love kids, when i was small i used to babysit my neighbours kids and would play teacher teacher where i am the teacher i had my own blackboard and chalks and it as fun.

you should practise it more often and make a time plan so you can also do your house work together with baby sitting.

love
alpa:cheers

Jpatma · Jan 20, 2010

Dear K2S,

Baby sitting takes all your time and then you realise you haven't done anything. I always amaze at the way our moms took care of us, we were five of us with an age gap of 2 years and handfull.
Now i find difficult even to manage one without help.But kids are always lovley , we some how learn from them. Nowadays kids are confident, speak their mind and sure of their needs and dislike
But havind kids in the house, the energy of the house is doubled.
Hope you get more such opportunity.
Jaya

ojaantrik · Jan 20, 2010

Today is Saraswati Puja in Bengal. It's SP elsewhere in India too, but I don't think it's celebrated elsewhere the way they do it here. Children, according to tradition, wear dhotis or sarees dyed yellow. It's always a pretty sight, partly because it's fun watching them trying to manage the dhoti or the saree.

I was sitting in my study and working and suddenly woke up to a foreign presence in the room. I looked around and found a child around 4 years old snuggling close to me in her yellow saree and red blouse. She was the prettiest sight I had seen in a long time. Her smile was the personification of innocence. She wanted to be hugged and kissed and I didn't disappoint her.

Then she began to chat with me in her baby Hindi. My Hindi is not the best in the world, but my baby Hindi is certainly the worst. Nonetheless, I tried gallantly to carry on a conversation. For some odd reason, she decided to address me as "Baba".

She played for a while in my study, asking me to give her a pencil to draw pictures with. I went into a trance as I gazed at her. Children are the greatest gift of God I told myself.

Soon of course, it was time for her to leave. Her aunt, a rather young girl herself, around 25 years or so, works as a sweeper at my residence. She brings her little niece, Archita, once in a while and the girl dances around the entire apartment like a butterfly, though she has a special fascination for my study. She looks around the room at a lot of things she doesn't quite recognize and asks me what one does with them. I try to explain and every once in a while she whispers into my ear: sab kuch ley jaungi! In reply, I tell her: tu sab kuch ley ja, lekin tujhey myay ley janunga.

She is not particularly agreeable. I think she considers my proposal unfair exchange!!

Anyway, I just wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your post. I could clearly feel your ecstasy surrounding your baby sitting chore. And your tale reminded me of the following immortal lines also:

One morning the Giant was lying awake in bed when he heard some lovely music. It sounded so sweet to his ears that he thought it must be the King's musicians passing by. It was really only a little linnet singing outside his window, but it was so long since he had heard a bird sing in his garden that it seemed to him to be the most beautiful music in the world. Then the Hail stopped dancing over his head, and the North Wind ceased roaring, and a delicious perfume came to him through the open casement. "I believe the Spring has come at last," said the Giant; and he jumped out of bed and looked out.

What did he see?

He saw a most wonderful sight. Through a little hole in the wall the children had crept in, and they were sitting in the branches of the trees. In every tree that he could see there was a little child. And the trees were so glad to have the children back again that they had covered themselves with blossoms, and were waving their arms gently above the children's heads. The birds were flying about and twittering with delight, and the flowers were loking up through the green grass and laughing. ...
Click to expand...

Regards.

oj

monifa13 · Jan 21, 2010

Very nice K2S and beautifully written. Particularly I loved the oops button lesson!

knot2share · Jan 21, 2010

Kamalji..Thank you for the first feedback. I nearly smiled when you said that you were pleased as punch to post the first one and you beat Viji ma'm...hehehehe...We all have a kid inside us isn't it? I will surely read the post on Chutku. Well you know I do agree with the other point you made too - better a neighbour's kid where you can play and return the kid back when he/she starts crying... That was funny and thank you for the good words. Words do not flow effortlessly for me, like it happens to many of you. I try my best to write something when it feels right and enjoy doing so too.

Deepa..Nice to see you here and thank you for reading. Yes she is a sweet kid and her name is Diya. She is a huge powerhouse of energy in that slim body. I do not know where they all get stored.

Viji ma'm..A very pleasant surprise to see your feedback. It certainly is not easy to mind a child and I was really surprised that she had the lunch without any further drama. I had expected her to refuse initially but told her to try it out first and then if she did not like it, I would try and make something else. Heart of hearts I was in no mood to cook again. She said that she would eat on her own but I insisted that I would feed her because if left to her, nothing would have gone into her stomach. This way atleast a fairly decent amount went it and she had no complains during or after. She was happy and I was too . Glad you enjoyed and thank you for being here.

knot2share · Jan 21, 2010

ALPA darling...Yes I learn something or the other from here everytime she comes home. I too remember playing similar game like yours but in my case it was just me and the dolls, with me being the teacher and the student. I am sure many have gone through this in their lives. I have always loved being on my own and that continues even now strangely enough. I will try to get myelf more organised when it happens the next time. Lets see how that goes. Thank you for dropping by. Take care.

Jaya/Jpatma... So true what you said. I can't imagine my grandmothers looking after not one or two but 5 or 8 of them in a house. But I guess those days there was lots of domestic help. I remember my grandmother (dad's amma) saying that she never had any problems looking after the kids. She used to have a lady who actually looked after all the kids from birth and so all grandmother had to do was deliver one after the other!! Rest was taken care of. Yeah, these days kids are very sharp and there is always something to learn from them. Thanks for reading.