Wednesday, July 30, 2014

Activities of a 3 year old

Summer is fast heating up. The temperature in Pune at the start of this week touched 39.2 deg. C. We can't go out and taking Arya out is out of the question. School is still open and he is ok going there. Since he is of a fast-learning age, I want to teach him some things and know what he likes doing.

I have introduced him to:

Sponge painting: Got a Hobby Ideas sponge painting kit for him. It has some sponge cut-outs, colors and a brush.
Me: Arya, I got a geeffft (gift) for you.
Arya: Majasathi? De na mala geeft.
Me: (Showing the box) See, it is for you! But since I have to rush to office now, we will open this and play in the evening.
Arya: Open it now!!!!! Please mumma.
So we opened it and enjoyed stamping a few elephants, cars, and butterflies. He loved mixing colors on the palate with the brush. He loves using the brush to color the sponge. He simply didn't allow me to touch the sponges after the 1st time I showed him what to do.

Finger painting: We did finger painting together. I taught him how to make flowers with fingers, and some animals too. He didnt like it a lot as it makes hands messy. He hates dirt and grime and thinks his hands are dirty with color!

Play dough: I have shown him his play dough set this week. (He had gotten that as his birthday gift in Jan!) He was so excited. He thinks that I am the coolest mumma ever!
We played for a huge time, making 3D houses, a 3D London bridge, some ducks, trucks, etc. He loves to press the dough through the machine to get various shapes. Here are a few pics of the house and the well we made! Needless to say, even I as an adult love to do these activities!










Vegetable stamping: This is simple. I was alone in the house, making pav-bhaji vegetable, and Arya wanted attention. So I lifted him on the kitchen table (yes this is risky to do) and kept a big drawing book in front of him. I made cross sections of  Potato, Capsicum, Tomato.  For Potato I cut the cross section into a flower. I created a paste of turmeric with water in a plate and lo behold, our activity began! He started stamping all veggies on the white paper creating a nice pattern. I remembered our good old Jai Hind High School days. Our drawing and craft teachers were too good. We even had a leaf stamping class! At the end of this activity Arya said to me 'Mummy mala khup majja ali!'

Dance: We both dance around with TV on, trying to mimic the steps on screen. (His favorites are Yo-Yo Honey Singh songs and a few item numbers, so all I have to do is make some cool hand and finger movements like Honey Singh. We also do baby-doll and few other item numbers too.) I'm thinking of a dance class for him.

Legos and building blocks: His usual mega blocks and legos are with him. We build cities out of it and make connecting roads too!

Coloring: Coloring book with cartoons and lots of crayons. He doesn't like this activity much.

I'm thinking of a story telling class for him, but can't find one in my area.
 

All in 4 days.

Saturday to Tuesday at home. Lots of happenings.
  • Mom and dad met with an accident while on Scooty. Went to the hospital with you. Got her home, took care of her.
  • Cooked so much food!
  • Messed up the workflow for managing Arya and the house.
    • You don't like when I am not straightforward with maid, nanny and Maushi. I don't have the necessary management skills you think (Leaving a new born at home to do a day job is enough to make any mom drop on her knees, if she thinks that will keep the baby happy). Finally after a lot of pressure from you over the years, and lots of bad attitudes from nanny and Maushi recently, I gave in.
    • I scolded the nanny for her obvious failures - late coming, uninformed absence, frequent offs, laziness. I even had a rift with maushi for her ignorance around the house and her mismanagement. The rift with Maushi BTW was started by your passing comment that she had heard. Anyway...
    • Maushi left the house for now (Don't know if she will be back).
    • Nanny is absconding again. Came to know that she is searching for a job elsewhere.
  • You are not in your right spirits and don't want to talk much.
Today, I'm stressed about
  • The impending day care search
  • Adjusting maid timings
  • Preparing Arya's mind for the shift to day care
  • Working out his timings for drop and pick up
  • Feeding him and managing his multiple tiffins
  • Home management.
Here in office
  • Gearing up for the tasks that were piled up due to my absence.
  • Can't focus for above reasons
Too much on my plate.  Lot's. Alone.