One Day With My 3 1/2 yr old
I thought of titling this post "Three days with my 3 1/2 yr old". But poor fellow, he was sick for the first two days. So not fair on my part to blame him for giving me a frustrating experience.
Today he was feeling better on the whole, yet I did not send him to school because he had a few bouts of stomach ache now and then. When there was a respite from the pain, he seemed to make up for the lost time by jumping all around the house. His latest craze is acting like Spiderman, not exactly... more like becoming Spiderman himself! I asked him to keep the remote in its place and it was Spiderman who swung on a web-rope to do the job. He stands on a stool, puts his hand out, catches some imaginery rope and jumps down. The part that is totally realistic is when he lands, he does so on all fours :-) When the movie is on he dons his Spiderman dress and acts his part out.
Okay enough of admiration. In between jumping from one chair to another, Spiderman recognises someone in need of a kiss - Who else, but his mother. Suddenly I find myself under attack from him, he smothers me with his hands on my neck. I don't know when I am going to faint from his choking. My mother has the most appropriate word for this kind of love - rAkshasa konjal. After that bout of jumping spiderman sobers down and gets ready to play some games. Oh no! not alone! "AMMA! Come and pleeaaaase play with me" Hari asks with both hands joined together, flashing a set of brilliant white teeth, and with an expression that not even the devil can refuse.
There I go and play chess with him. Have you played chess with a 3 1/2 yr old who has no sense of what the coins are for and what those little sqares mean? No? You should play at least once to know what a happy/frustrating experience it is. Take a piece of advice - Never try to teach him how to place the coins or how to move them. They would shout back at you and say "thappu". It is wrong to place the horse at the last row. It has to be placed in the middle and only on the color of your coin. In my son's game there are no movements of coins. Just placing them and removing. Played that twice and only twice. No more. No less. Then its packup.
On to Jigsaw puzzle. It is actually a memory game but Hari prefers to call it a Jigsaw. That again I have to play with him because its a two player game! I would have explain the whole game to tell you how tough it is to try to explain stuff to a 3 1/2 yr old, adamant, obstinate and all the other words that Merriam Webster lists.
Next I have to sit and watch Spiderman 1 and 2 for the nth time with him. I cannot quietly sit with a book while he watches. He would give a running commentary on what is going to happen, what happened, what is happening and what he thinks is happening. When he doesn't understand anything, he would ask me, "what is he saying? Why is he doing that? Why is she laughing? Why is she shouting? etc.. etc.." By now, both movies, not scene by scene, but sound by sound is etched in mind. I sometimes amaze myself at how my ears are forever tuned to his questions and am always ready with the answer, without as much of a glance at the TV screen. If I am not there for more than 5 minutes, he would pause the picture, hunt me down and make me sit before it. Spiderman is pretty okay. Try explaining each and every movement of a Tom and Jerry Cartoon........
Next task on the list was Playdoh. That is where I put a big fullstop and told him to go to hell, though not in so many words. Just very nicely, GO AND PLAY ON YOUR OWN.
All the above tasks actually happen daily, just one once a day, since he started going to school. Today when he piled every one of the above together, I very nearly became bald tearing every strand of hair on my head.
Today he was feeling better on the whole, yet I did not send him to school because he had a few bouts of stomach ache now and then. When there was a respite from the pain, he seemed to make up for the lost time by jumping all around the house. His latest craze is acting like Spiderman, not exactly... more like becoming Spiderman himself! I asked him to keep the remote in its place and it was Spiderman who swung on a web-rope to do the job. He stands on a stool, puts his hand out, catches some imaginery rope and jumps down. The part that is totally realistic is when he lands, he does so on all fours :-) When the movie is on he dons his Spiderman dress and acts his part out.Okay enough of admiration. In between jumping from one chair to another, Spiderman recognises someone in need of a kiss - Who else, but his mother. Suddenly I find myself under attack from him, he smothers me with his hands on my neck. I don't know when I am going to faint from his choking. My mother has the most appropriate word for this kind of love - rAkshasa konjal. After that bout of jumping spiderman sobers down and gets ready to play some games. Oh no! not alone! "AMMA! Come and pleeaaaase play with me" Hari asks with both hands joined together, flashing a set of brilliant white teeth, and with an expression that not even the devil can refuse.
There I go and play chess with him. Have you played chess with a 3 1/2 yr old who has no sense of what the coins are for and what those little sqares mean? No? You should play at least once to know what a happy/frustrating experience it is. Take a piece of advice - Never try to teach him how to place the coins or how to move them. They would shout back at you and say "thappu". It is wrong to place the horse at the last row. It has to be placed in the middle and only on the color of your coin. In my son's game there are no movements of coins. Just placing them and removing. Played that twice and only twice. No more. No less. Then its packup.
On to Jigsaw puzzle. It is actually a memory game but Hari prefers to call it a Jigsaw. That again I have to play with him because its a two player game! I would have explain the whole game to tell you how tough it is to try to explain stuff to a 3 1/2 yr old, adamant, obstinate and all the other words that Merriam Webster lists.
Next I have to sit and watch Spiderman 1 and 2 for the nth time with him. I cannot quietly sit with a book while he watches. He would give a running commentary on what is going to happen, what happened, what is happening and what he thinks is happening. When he doesn't understand anything, he would ask me, "what is he saying? Why is he doing that? Why is she laughing? Why is she shouting? etc.. etc.." By now, both movies, not scene by scene, but sound by sound is etched in mind. I sometimes amaze myself at how my ears are forever tuned to his questions and am always ready with the answer, without as much of a glance at the TV screen. If I am not there for more than 5 minutes, he would pause the picture, hunt me down and make me sit before it. Spiderman is pretty okay. Try explaining each and every movement of a Tom and Jerry Cartoon........
Next task on the list was Playdoh. That is where I put a big fullstop and told him to go to hell, though not in so many words. Just very nicely, GO AND PLAY ON YOUR OWN.
All the above tasks actually happen daily, just one once a day, since he started going to school. Today when he piled every one of the above together, I very nearly became bald tearing every strand of hair on my head.
Comments