Our 3 most favourite Christmas books!

HO - HO - HO!

          As I write this post, I just realize that there's just 1 week left for Christmas! Only 7 days! And we haven't yet finished school and term tests are hovering on our heads! It will be only Friday that we actually get down to prepare for our Christmas celebrations. I am immediately transported back to 10 years ago when me and my sister used to decorate Xmas tree and hang our stockings and wait for Santa Claus to bring in the gifts. (Obviously we both were big enough to know the unreal Santa Claus showering us with gifts - but so what?)

          This year, I'm pretty much excited to celebrate Christmas with my daughter who is 3 now. Unlike last year where I (The Santa Claus I mean!), just gave gifts, this year, I plan to deck up the tree and do everything related to Christmas - be it baking or cooking Christmas recipes with my kiddo, writing a letter to Santa or doing some simple craft to hang up our Christmas tree!

          But our bedtime ritual has already begun by reading Christmas books. And so, here I present 3 of our favourite Christmas books!


Stickman by Julia Donaldson -
          Oh, Julia Donaldson is our favourite in the household and I admire her for her simple stories which require a lot of imagination! How in the world can she transform a mere stick into a man with emotions is just out of my reach. In this book, a family of sticks is residing in a branch of a tree. One wintry morning, the Stickman goes jogging where a dog upon seeing him, uses him to play fetch and run with his master. The story goes on to describe how each of the characters use it for their profit without even once paying attention to the Stickman's emotions. I like Julia's way of using the stick as a twig for a nest, as a mast for a flag, as a toy for the dog, as a hook for a bag and so on. But alas, the Stickman is drifting away and away from home and here, his wife (Stick Lady) and his three kids(Stick Children) long for him as it's Christmas! Guess who helps to make him unite with his family - Of Course, the Santa Claus!! Axel Scheffler has done a wonderful job of carving a man out of a stick!

                                                            
Snowmen at Christmas by Caralyn Buehner -
          Here is another author who gives life to snowmen in this story. A little girl has just erected her snowman and is now wondering how must they be celebrating Christmas? She concludes that they must be sneaking in the night to have a gala time with other snowmen when the humans are fast asleep! She imagines that the snowmen decorate their Christmas tree with balls of snow, the mommies lay all cold treats like ice cream and snow cones to eat (eating ice creams in the freezing cold!). With all the dancing happening, comes along Kris Kringle (Santa Claus made of snow) to distribute his snow gifts with reindeer (again of snow!) pulling the sleigh. After having a merry time they return to their homes with big dainty smiles spread on their faces! Charmingly illustrated by Mark Buehner, this books is a must-read especially now!

                                                  
How many sleeps till Christmas? by Mark Sperring
          This is a story of Daddy Grizzle and Little Pip wherein Little Pip is impatient and just wants to know when it will be Christmas. As all toddlers can't understand the difference between 5 minutes and 5 hours, Daddy Grizzle patiently explains to him that its still 4 more sleeps (read 4 nights) for Christmas to arrive. Daddy Grizzle has a lot of work to do each day but Little Pip just can't keep his excitement and wakes his dad early everyday asking if today is Christmas. Finally, Daddy Grizzle draws 3 suns and 3 moons to show how far is Christmas. They both decorate a tree, invite friends over for Christmas, and wrap presents for each other. Finally, on Christmas Day, it's Daddy Grizle who wakes up Little Pip and points that indeed today is Christmas! I loved this story for the fact that it shows a father, for once, as the main caregiver! How charming is it to read what all does he do for his Little Pip. I also loved the page where they wrap their 'No Peeking' presents to be given to each other by sitting in a way where their backs face each other! And if you have an impatient kid at home trying to know when will it be Christmas, do read this book!

          Well, these are our favourites! Do tell us about your favourite Christmas books which you read to your kid! Wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a very Happy New Year!



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My darling, My Sunshine!

          This is an open letter addressed to my daughter on her 3rd birthday. She is so small to understand what I want to let her know so I'm writing for her which she can read when she grows up.

Dearest Swara,
          Hello my darling. It's your birthday today. I can't believe three years ago, you entered my world and made me a mommy. The term which is given a godly status - I am experiencing it to the fullest. 'Children are most dependent on mothers' is an apt saying. But here, I wish to tell you that even I'm dependent on you. Do you want to know how?

• I'm dependent on you to witness all those magical milestones which you have achieved till now and will continue to achieve.
• I'm dependent on you for laughter which is so contagious that one giggle from you when I'm in a foul mood melts my heart away.
• I'm dependent on you to enjoy childhood again with you. It gives me immense joy when I'm spending time with you - through reading, laughing, having silly conversations, watching movies etc. Of course, there are hair-raising moments or moments when I just don't want you to be near me. But, again, remember that this is because I may not want to hurt you or pour someone's anger on you.
• I'm dependent on you for that ray of sunshine which you have brought in my life.

Thank you for filling my life with joy and teaching me that happiness can be found in the most mundane of things.
Have a very happy birthday and looking forward to many many more with you!
God bless you my angel!

Day 26 : Gardens!

          The mere thought of gardens takes me back to the time spent in my childhood in parks and gardens which I and my sister would used to frequent. We were truly blessed to have them in our home's vicinity where all the children from nearby homes would come and play. Just one hour of play taught us so many things - co-operation, team spirit, victories and defeats, sportsmanship!

          Alas, today, there are very few gardens available in metros thanks to all the out-of-this-world-shopping-malls creeping up at every open place. Parents today, don't realize the importance of free play with fresh air and greenery doing wonders to their children. The weekends too are typically spent in this order - shopping, lunch, movie, dinner - that too in one mall!

          At least we have books to inculcate gardening and love of nature in us. Gardens was the prompt for today. Here are the books read -

1. Bondapur ki ek ajab kahaani (hindi) by Shamim Padamsee
2. Farm counting
3. Night sky wheel ride from Tradewind books
4. Spincy spider by Harminder Ohri
5. Brahma's butterfly
6. Storm in the garden
7. Magic vessels
8. The hedgerow circus by Ruth Thomson
9. Riki tiki tavi from Ladybird retold by Sampoorna Chatterjee
10. Hungry pants by Mary Batten
11. Topsy and Tim go green
12. Adam and Eve from Bible
13. The enormous turnip
14. The seed
15. The snail storm in the garden
16. The ugly duckling
17. Pinochchio
18. The green ship by Quentin Blake
19. Ruby Nettleship and the ice lolly adventure
20. The giving tree by Shel Silverstein
21. Tabby McTat
22. Room on the broom
23. The champa flower who took my strawberries
24. The tamarind tree
25. Oh, say can you seed
26. The prized pumpkin from Berenstain Bears
27. Tales of Peter rabbit
28. Flower fairies by Cicely Mary Barker
29. Sea in a bucket by Deepa Balsavar
30. Amelia Bedelia goes camping
31. Flowers - picture book
32. Farmer Donald's pumpkin patch from Mickey Clubhouse Storybook collection
33. The pig's egg
34. Geronimo Stilton
35. Cinderella
36. In the night garden
37. Wangari's trees of peace
38. Zhaad (marathi)
39. Teddy and a magic trick
40. A rainy day adventure
41. Bees and butterflies by Gina Philips
42. Little fox's picnic by Debie Glior
43. The oak tree
44. Pepper learns about recycling
45. Pepper learns to take turns
46. How does your garden grow by Disney
47. One mole digging a hole by Julia Donaldson
48. Alphablock
49. Eric Carle's ABC
50. The little gardener by Jan Gerardi
51. The butterfly children
52. Peekaboo in the farm
53. The tamarind tree
54. Busy bees' flower friends by Nicholas Hawkins
55. Come to the circus - Fenelia gets into trouble
56. Phonics first
57. The little mouse, the red-ripe strawberry and the big hungry bear
58. Tell me a story before I go to bed
59. Bubbles goes to school
60. Read and grow with Pepper series
61. A busy day with patches the puppy
62. Peppa's Easter egg hunt
63. Sid the seed by Daniel R. Panag
64. Hop on pop
65. Upside down
66. Even Stevens Odd Todd

          A whopping number of books were read today. While doing so, don't forget to take your kids to a little bit of greenery this weekend!

          AS for Swara, she is truly blessed to have a garden for herself and her friends in our backyard thanks to the green hands of my father-in-law.
 Happy reading!

 

Day 25 : Food!

          Food! The mere sight of something delicious on the table churns us inside when we are so hungry! If I am not satiated, I tend to lose my patience. Everyone at home knows this fact and so to calm me down, they always offer something to bite on!
 
          However, when it comes to children, we all know how they are so fussy about their foods, messy about their table manners and grouchy and not willing to gobble that food into their mouths. I am experiencing this and with time I have just learnt one thing - If Swara does not wish to eat I don't force her. I just leave the plate there and whenever she feels hungry, she comes on her own! Then, even if the plate is full of her unfavourite spinach, she will finish it. Try this - you will be seriously amazed. I should warn you though - you will have to take an effort to neglect your kid!

          And coming to this challenge, how can it be exciting without food as today's prompt. The books related to food are as follows -

1. Today is Monday by Eric Carle
2. Gajapati kulapati
3. Book on time
4. Blueberries for Sal
5. Lassi, ice-cream or falooda?
6. The magic melon from Usborne by Rosie Dickens
7. Junior Kumbhakarna
8. The dog and the bone
9. The talking cave - a Panchatantra tale
10. The silly story of Bondapalli
11. The fox and the goat
12. The magic porridge pot from Ladybird
13. The big pancake from Ladybird
14. Three for free by Greystone - Taiwanese folktale
15. Enna Seiyalam (tamil)
16. Adventures of Fixy the fox
17. The sandwich swap
18. Scrummy
19. 10 apples up on top by Dr. Seuss
20. I'm the best artist in the ocean by Kevin Sherry
21. The runaway bunny by Margaret Wise Brown
22. Pancakes, pancakes
23. Samira's awful lunch
24. Stone soup
25. Green eggs and ham
26. If a pig wants a pancake
27. Pepper eats too much cake
28. Jalebi curls from Tulika
29. Chocolate mousse for greedy goose
30. What shall I make? from Tulika
31. The why why girl from Tulika
32. Pepper learns about recycling
33. Pepper gets a new pet
34. Chatur yojana (hindi)
35. The gruffalo
36. Good night Alfie Atkins by Gunilla Bergstorm
37. Sushila's kolam by Sridala Swami
38. What does baby Mickey find?
39. The very hungry caterpillar
40. Food for a party
41. Monsters munch lunch
42. Where there's a bear, there's trouble by Michael Catchpool
43. The tiger who came to tea by Judith Kerr
44. The tiny seed by Eric Carle
45. Bubbles is greedy
46. Bubbles has a toothache
47. Alphablock
48. Happy birthday little pokie by Sandra Boynton
49. Lunchbox, the story of your food by Chris Butterworth
50. Billy Tibbles moves out by Jan Fearnley
51. Billy Bogglesworth and the road to Muffinville and other stories by David Whitney
52. Pink Pepparoni by David Whitney
53. Cookie rookie by Salem de Bezenac & Amy Upshaw
54. Pat the cat
55. Pat the puppy
56. Yummy yucky by Sandra Boynton
57. Apples are magic by Julia Seal
58. The ugly vegetables by Grace Lin
59. The lion and the mouse retold by Jerry Pinkney
60. Baby's first library : numbers
61. The runaway dinner

          And here is a choco chip cookie recipe which I made it with my daughter! Truly, we had an amazing bonding time. Its simple, attractive and healthy too! A Must-try!
Happy reading!

Day 22 : What I wear?

          Why do toddlers fuss so much about their clothes? In the initial stages, they just do not wish to wear anything whatsoever. A little later, getting them dressed is always a struggle between their moms and them. I face this situation not everyday but every time when there is a 'change of clothes' episode! Hope I'm not the only one in this!

          Long back, BubbleInk Writes and I were having a conversation when she recommended Hippo has a Hat by Julia Donaldson. She said that Swara will love the book. I bought it and when I read it, it was so much fun reading along with the added vocabulary of clothes and their description. The book is so vividly described and full of colours that Swara first listed all the colours on each page and then demanded me to tell the story. Then, we had an impromptu Ramp-walk kind of thing where Swara was draping all sorts of clothes and accessories on herself. Hmm.... I just pray that our battles on clothes have come to an end!

          And this was the prompt for today! Books about clothes! And I'm sure mommies too would have had fun reading these to their kids -

1. Green eggs and ham by Dr. Seuss
2. FunOkPlease's Alphabet dress-up
3. Cat's hat by Jillian Harker
4. Tania's Tutu from Stories for 5 year olds by Igloo Publishers
5. Granny's Sari
6. Hamilton's hats
7. My mother's sari by Sandhya Rao
8. I'm going to be the best super-hero ever by Moira Butterfield
9. Elliot's shoelace problem by Steve Griffiths
10. Mad about costume and fashion - a Ladybird mini series book
11. Where's the cat? by Manjula Padnabham
12. The very hungry caterpillar
13. The ugly duckling
14. Picture book on different types of clothes in different seasons
15. Clara Button and the magical hat
16. Naked rat mole gets dressed by Mo Willems  
17. Sloppy Joe by Dave Keane
18. The smartest giant in town by Julia Donaldson
19. Fanny by Holly Hobbie
20. Caillou's favourite T-shirt
21. Olivia by Ian Falconer
22. Chulbul's tail from Pratham
23. Water stories from Tulika
24. Hippo has a hat by Julia Donaldson
25. Pepper stays away
26. Beautiful bananas
27. Go dog go by P. D. Eastman
28. One fish, two fish, red fish, blue fish by Dr. Seuss
29. If you give a moose a muffin
30. Jim's dog muffins by Miriam Cohen
31. Three little pigs
32. A friend of Ella
33. How many sleeps till my birthday
34. Things to wear
35. Little red riding hood (the Grimm brothers)
36. The Queen's nickers by Nicholas Allan
37. Room on the broom
38. Patch's coat
39. Thomas and Bertie from Thomas and the tank engine
40. The moon and the cap from Pratham
41. The smartest giant in town by Carolina Almeida
42. You look funny by Jim Kom
43. Dr. Seuss' Fox in socks
44. Under the ground from Usborne reading
45. Goldilocks and three bears
46. Llama llama shopping drama by Anna Dewdney
47. The shiny red shoes from Stories for 3 year olds by Igloo
48. Help Mia get ready for bed
49. Seasons by Sesame Street
50. Splish splash baby bundt
51. Norbus' new shoes

Happy reading!

Day 20 : The very hungry caterpillar

          Today, the very hungry caterpillar completes 45 years of publication! What a book it is! The like-cycle of a butterfly, counting numbers, days of the week, everything is crammed into that book without overwhelming its readers! hence, at the Bubble-Ink challenge, this was our today's prompt.

          Today, it also happens to be World Storytelling Day. Here is the list of all the magnificent stories told by their mommies to their little kids -

1. The very hungry caterpillar by Eric Carle
2. Brown bear brown bear what do you see? by Eric Carle
3. The bad-tempered ladybug by Eric Carle
4. No, David
5. Feet problems from CBT
6. Tulika's water stories
7. The free mountain by Kaveri Chatterjee
8. Danny and the dinosaur goes to the camp
9. The story of Pradosham (how Lord Shiva came to have blue throat)
10. The very busy spider by Eric Carle
11. The little cloud
12. The tiny seed
13. The lizard's tail
14. Brahma's butterfly
15. Fancy Nancy sees stars by Jane O'Connor
16. The glass tree by M. Mukundan
17. Udte Udte (Urdu)  from Pratham
18. The annual haircut day
19. Hermit crab by Eric Carle
20. The three little pigs
21. The bird with golden wings by Sudha Murty
22. The dwarf and the long beard from Arabian Nights
23. The fisherman and the genie from Arabian Nights
24. The very quiet cricket by Eric Carle
25. From head to toe by Eric Carle
26. Pinochchio
27. Where do kisses come from?
28. Animal moral stories
29. My very first book of animal homes by Eric Carle
30. Today is Monday
31. Eric Carle's ABC
32. Gorillas : Gentle giants of the forest
33. Krishna rocks
34. The very fierce carpenter
35. Charlie Cook's favourite book by Julia Donladson

          You must be wondering only 35 books read today? That's because The Very Hungry Caterpillar was read 26 times in a single day in this challenge, by far, the most read one too! And yes, it was also the easiest compilation of everyone's reads till now!

          And to show our love and admiration to Eric Carle, we celebrated Eric Carle Day reading all his titles which we have so far - The very hungry caterpillar, the bad-tempered ladybug, the very quiet cricket, brown bear brown bear what do you see?, My very first book of animal homes and From head to toe. And if that was not enough, we also dabbled in a bit of craft. We made a colourful caterpillar using pom-pom balls.

Happy reading!

Day 16 : I feel..

          I remember when my daughter couldn't express herself due to lack of speech and less emotional development and I used to fret over her for not understanding her. Add to it, that I used to get so impatient that eventually I used to scold her which resulted in more frustration and tears. Thankfully, those days are gone! Being a first-time mother, I may not have handled the situations tactfully. Slowly, when it started repeating itself, I would patiently calm myself first and then pay attention to my daughter!

          So, when Bubble Ink introduced this prompt I felt relieved to see so many books bang on the prompt. I wish I had read some books to Swara when she was smaller!

          Anyway, better late than never! I will start over just after completing this blog post!

1. Baby happy baby sad
2. Tell me something happy before I got to bed by Joyce Dunbar
3. Have you seen this?
4. Giraffes can't dance
5. Piano notes from the book
6. Are you my mother?
7. Green eggs and ham
8. Corduroy's Easter
9. Siri's smile by R. Amarendran
10. Malu bhalu by Kamala Bhasin
11. The song of the scarecrow
12. Bhakt Prahlad
13. Mr. Happy, Mr. Uppity, Mr. Jelly, Mr. Worry, Mr. Greedy, Mr. Grumpy and Mr. Rude from Mr. Men series
14. Alibaba and forty thieves
15. Grumpy bird by Jeremy Tankard
16. A is amazing by Wendy Cooling
17. Happy or sad? (making faces) by Caroline Davis
18. Opposites in Tinga Tinga tales
19. The snail and the whale by Julia Donaldson
20. Night night little pookie by Sandra Boynton
21. The rainbow fish
22. The great race
23. Magic vessels
24. Each peach pear plum
25. Roald Dahl's Esio trot
26. A bond of love from NBT
27. Brahma's butterfly
28. The twits by Roald Dahl
29. Rooster and the sun from Tulika
30. Kantala and Paahuni (marathi)
31. Nini's Sports day
32. What is your name?
33. Pepper watches too much TV
34. Sam and the firefly by P. D. Eastman
35. Mr. Brown can moo, can you?
36. The Gruffalo's child
37. Arthur goes on vacation by Mark Brown
38. Shrinking Sam
39. Pepper is jealous
40. Pepper throws a tantrum
41. The watermelon route
42. Hug
43. My truck is stuck
44. Too much noise
45. Bani from Pratham books
46. Seesaw or sad story by Henrique Komatsu
47. A very funny tale by Enid Blyton
48. My many coloured days
49. The true friendship moral stories
50. Where, oh where is Huggle buggle bear? by Katherine Sully
51. The noisy night monsters by Julia Seal
52. Spot's first picnic by Eric Hill
53. The bad-tempered ladybird by Eric Carle
54. There's a wocket in my pocket
55. Rhino bath
56. The magic porridge pot
57. Rabbit in the moon
58. The complete set of Pepper - 48 books
59. I'm not scared - Scholastic reader 1 by Hans Wilhelm
60. Where's Gola's home? from Tulika

As for us, we read the last two of the list!
Happy reading!

Day 11 : Now, I know my ABCs

          ABCDEFG......          When I saw this as our prompt of the reading challenge, I moved back to my kindergarten days. Though, I couldn't remember everything what all I learnt there, I am so blessed to experience those days again through my toddler's life. I couldn't contain my excitement when Swara started to utter her ABC song even before she was two! I recorded her alphabet song the next time she sang. I am going to make her listen when she grows up! The most amazing thing about that song was there were never 26 alphabets in her version! (She was not able to say all the letters at that time!)

          Though we have only one book of Dr. Seuss's ABC, we didn't read that book. Instead, we read I don't want to go to bed by Julie Sykes. Here is the list of others' reads-

1. My first little mother Goose
2. Chicka chicka boom boom
3. ABC3D pop-up from Tara books
4. My name is Amrita
5. A trail of paint by Jamini Roy
6. Hey, that's an A by Jerry Pinto
7. The heart of winter by Eiko Takeda
8. Happy Alphabets
9. Apple pie by Kate Greenway
10. A 'miaow' and a 'roar' from Pratham books
11. Dr. Seuss ABC
12. On beyond Zebra
13. Oliver by Syd Hoff
14. The horse in Harry's room by Syd Hoff
15. Yakkity Yak by Bennita Sen
16. The mouse with seven tails by Bapsi Sidhwa
17. Aplhabets are amazing animals by Anushka Ravishankar
18. Ladybird's My best friend
19. The great ABC treasure hunt
20. K is for kissing a cool kangaroo by Giles Andreae
21. This is our house by Michael Rosen
22. My first big book of alphabets
23. Benjamin Bunny visits the doctor
24. Z is for a moose by Kelly Bingham
25. Chocolate mousse for greedy goose
26. Pahuni (marathi) by Madhuri Purandare
27. A chair for my mother
28. Chicka chicka ABC
29. Paragon's alphabet book
30. Little Miss Trouble by Roger Hargreaves
31. Little Miss Brainy by Roger Hargreaves
32. Mr. funny by Roger Hargreaves
33. Scooby-Doo - your everyday hero
34. Tuby and Speedy from Drive-along tales
35. I don't want to go to bed by Julie Sykes
36. My mother's sari by Sandhya Rao
37. On the top the pin was from Katha
38. Alphabets book
39. Abc book and charts
40. Curious George and the puppies
41. Fun with word search all rounder
42. Magic Pot
43. Disney Winnie and the friends
44. Are you my mother? by P.D.Eastman
45. A is for apple (trace and flip fun) by Georgie Birkett
46. Alphabet puzzle from Frank
47. Colour colour Kamini
48. Hop on pop by Dr. Seuss
49. Tigger's Giant lift-the-flap
50. Z goes home by Jon Agee
51. Bhima and the fragrant flower by A. Ramachandran And Chameli
52. Happy baby ABC
53. Baby's first library - words

That's it for day 11!
Happy reading!

Day 4 : Numbers

The reading prompt for today is listed here

1.  The very hungry caterpillar by Eric Carle
2. Bears on wheels by Stan & Jan Berenstain
3. Barefoot's Knick Knack Paddy Whack
4. Ramona's father
5. The three Billy goats gruff
6. Monkey and the pencil by Lalita Bawa
7. Ranganna
8. Thomas and the school trip
9. Rooster's off to see the world by Eric Carle
10. All about nothing from Tulika Publishers
11. Even Steven and odd Tod from Scholastic
12. Ten Apples up on top by Dr. Seuss
13. Chicken Licken
14. Ten in the bed by Penny Dale
15. Let's go from Tulika
16. The four friends
17. Lady and the tramp from Ladybird
18. G.E.M. by Jane Clarke
19. Papa, please get the moon for me
20. Head to toe by Eric Carle
21. The dinosaur who lost his roar from Usborne First Reading
22. Putul and the dolphins
23. Black Panther
24. Molly moves to Sesame Street
25. Emie and Bert's different day
26. How do we weigh Appukuttan? by Indu Harikumar
27. Over in the meadow by Olive A. Wadsworth
28. One Ted falls out of bed by Julia Donaldson
29. The Runaway Wheel
30. How the crow turned black?
31. 1,2,3 by Elmo
32. The very quiet cricket by Eric Carle
33. Sam and the firefly by P.D. Eastman
34. The Churkhi-burki book of rhymes by Gita wolf & Durga Bai
35. Fix it Duck by Jez Alborough
36. Dosa by Sandhya Rao
37. Space
38. Ten in the bed by Penny Dale
39. One mole digging a hole by Julia Donaldson
40. Ten from Tulika
41. Ten Little fingers by Sheila Dhir
42. Topsy + Tim red boots yellow boots
43. Free mountain from Katha books
44. Monster math school time
45. My album of numbers from Vikas
46. The tooth book by Dr. Seuss
47. Brown bear brown bear, what do you see? by Eric Carle
48. Snow White and seven dwarfs
49. Dad, I can't sleep by Michael Foreman
50. The enormous crocodile by Roald Dahl
51. Who invited you? by Candace Fleming
52. The Pear Tree : An animal counting book by Meredith Hooper
53. Susheela's Kolam by Sridala Swami
54. Balamory sun, wind and rainbows
55. Mickey and his toys
56. Gajapati Kulapati
57. How to catch a star
58. Hop on Pop
59. Counting Glove book
60. Polar bear

This is the compiled list of Day 4. 

As for us, it was time to enact Ten in the Bed by Penny Dale! A beautiful bedtime story on backward counting! Here are the snaps! Then, we moved on to One Mole Digging A Hole by Julia Donaldson.

Happy Reading!

30 books in 30 days challenge!

          30 Books in 30 Days Challenge is gaining momentum on Facebook with just a few hours left. I was reminiscing my college days and school days when I used to sneak a novel just about anywhere and start reading! Be it on local trains (to and from college), having dinner, under a text-book (during exams)!
          I felt so relieved when my daughter caught on the reading bug (though she is just about to complete 2 1/2 years and yes I have to read to her). A huge share of this love goes to Little Reader's Nook for sending awesome theme-based books month after month. Did I say books? Oh yes, They are all sorts of lift-the-flap books, picture books, pop-up books which are not normally seen in a book-store.
          On the way, I met several like-minded moms on Facebook like The BubbleInk Writes! We share and recommend each other great books and also she hints on some fabulous discounts on Flipkart and Amazon! I follow her blog religiously The BubbleInk to scour some gems of the books which she reviews!
          Hence, I was very excited when she came up with this challenge! The prospect of reading together with my daughter (which will result in bonding time) and the curiosity of who is reading what will eventually garner more likes and appreciation than winning!
          And now, you will have to excuse me because I am now concentrating on preparing a list!
          The details of this challenge are listed here.

Children are so innocent!

           Last weekend, my in-laws and me, we were watching 'Bal Ganesha' with my two year old. It was her first time to watch a movie. I have not allowed her to watch any movies up till now, not even cartoons! This, I must confess! So, coming back to this movie, I was a little apprehensive whether she will understand (?), get bored (?), enjoy(?) etc.

          But I was totally taken aback when she started getting restless and frantic. I asked what happened, but she couldn't explain. I calmed her down and then very peacefully tackled her ongoing frustration.

          Finally, after much cajoling, she showed me the DVD cover of Lord Ganesha! And then it struck me a like a bolt of lightning! Actually, when the movie starts, Lord Ganesha has a human head and not an elephant head! She just couldn't recognize him! Also, she was not able to follow the story too! Every time, at prayer time, at story time, she knows that Lord Ganesha has an elephant head!

          Then, I fast forwarded a little and showed her Lord Ganesha. She was so overjoyed!

          Children are so innocent. Guess how he got an elephant head has to be told in a story now!
         
         

Children and food habits!

                    The other evening, I had made sitaphal rabdi for all of us. I called my daughter Swara to have some. As usual she was not in a mood to eat it. As a two year old parent, I know what huge amount of efforts it takes to put food into your children's mouths! I'm sure every parent will agree to that! Still I pestered her to taste a spoonful. What she did afterwards shocked me!
                   
                    She took her bowl with the spoon, sat cross-legged on the floor, placed her bowl in front of her lap. Then she took her soft cuddly bear, reclined it on her lap, took a spoonful of rabdi and imitated as if she were feeding it! Obviously she came to know that it is not eating, so after a few seconds she kept the spoon down and she raised her hand as if to spank the cuddly bear!

                     It got me thinking! I must have behaved that way sometime so as to her to follow. Do I push her to forcefully eat during meal times? Sometimes, older siblings often at dinner table cringe on having to eat their not so favourite sabzi! Younger siblings take their cues just by observing older people at home! Or sometimes we mothers say in front of our children, 'oh no, my maid hasn't come, now I have to prepare meals!' Children are sharp to understand that this may be a boring chore! 

                    That moment, I realised that children are our best imitators! No amount of forcing our children to eat karela will lead to results unless we eat in front of them. Don't be disheartened if your child doesn't eat at that moment. Wait for an hour or so and again reintroduce that dish to her. Chances are that it may be willing to to at least taste it if not eat it!

                    So, parents are we behaving in the right way for our children to follow regarding food habits?