Gopi Krishna in the pool

Water and Ameya (my little one) are made for each other. Every time he enters the water in his bath-tub or the complex swimming pool, I have a hard time getting him out! And then, didn’t I just write what all moms face with their kids in this scenario? 🙂

So today I will tell you about this incident in the swimming pool last week. We (Ameya, my hubby and I) had a family time in the adults pool area. After an hour or so we took him to the kiddie pool. At first he was not happy to be there but started enjoying in a bit. This was because all the little girls (all elder to him) in the pool came to play with him in the kiddie pool!!

It was a delight to see him play with them. They took care of him and ensured that he didn’t slip or fall. It was like there were small Gopis with a little Krishna in the pool (from Indian mythology)!

Seeing them together, I couldn’t resist and took some pictures and thought of sharing them with you all.

Needless to say, when I tried to get him out of the kiddie pool at the end of another hour he was very unhappy and didn’t want to leave, protesting in his way saying he wanted to stay back in the water! 🙂

This time in the pool surely tired him out so much that after a wash and a snack, Ameya fell asleep for a good 2 hours.

And he was still talking about his time in the pool and the girls while I put him to bed that night! A boy after all I smiled. 😉

Parallel Play

All children love to play. They also tend to outgrow their toys very easily and quickly. So when my son goes to his friends’ houses (or vice versa), he enjoys the new (meaning different from his) toys that he gets to play with. And then at this young age of 2 & 3 years, kids aren’t great social beings. In the attempt to teach our kids sharing, we (my friends and I) try to get our kids to play together as much as possible. And it mostly works much to us moms’ relief! 🙂 Occassionally, there’s some screaming and snatching too – am sure all moms agree. 😉

This time my friend and I decided to leave our sons in the play room, on their own. We just carried on with our chit-chat and waited for that inevitable scream. But guess what? About half an hour passed and we had heard no such noise from the room and went to check on them. And what did we see? Our sons were playing quietly by themselves without bothering the other. Na na, not playing with each other. They were playing alone but knew what the other was doing.

Every couple of minutes, one would turn around and see if the other was in the room and then continue with his own game. If one of them left the room, the other would follow a minute later check out what’s happening and then come back to his toy in the room.

It was so nice to see them this way. Parallel play at its best and we mothers felt so good to see them like this. 🙂 Now we’ve decided, we shall get our kids together in a room full of toys and just let them be – they’ll figure out a way to make their time better and maybe, eventually, they’ll start playing with each other. A parent can only hope! 🙂

This Summer – Me & My Son

As the summer vacations are approaching, the nervousness among the todlders’d mothers are getting higher and higher. Few of us have already planned to visit the grandparents and most of us started to enquire about the summer camp classes or some other activity classes to keep their kids engaged.

As our kids get older we want them to get engage in something or the other and when we get old and our children will not be able to give us much time we will be blaming the generation or the their busy life style.
This summer I have decided that I should not put my son for any classes rather I should spend my time with him and should pass on the best out of me. All other 190 days of the year we spend for their daily routine- morning breakfast, school, lunch, evening play, dinner but when did we really spend quality time with them to give best out of us?

So, this summer- me & my son only! What about you?

Come on, be a sport!

This is perhaps the best time to instill the ‘sporty spirit’ in your children. The FIFA fever is at a crazy high and there  can’t be a better time to tell how important sports can be in the life of a  child. Yes, the physical benefits will lure the moms to send their tots out to the fields, but the other ‘fringe’ benefits that come with sports are far too many to be ignored. Simply put,  sports teaches you leadership skills, discipline, grit, determination, fair-play, team spirit, how to handle a win, and in the same breath how to handle a defeat. In short, sports is all about LIFE.

Be it a game of tennis, badminton or Lagori, we cannot ignore, how many friendships were formed while playing. Fair-play cannot be taught better than while playing a sport. I also think being passionate about a particular sport also promotes a healthy mind and conditions one to  pursue interests in life, with equal zeal.

It might be a good idea for parents to explore options for their child in their early  years itself– choose what kind of sports they might enjoy and eventually be good at.  Do remember, kids have a mind of their own and might sometimes out right reject playing a particular game. You might give up thinking he/she shouldn’t be forced into doing something. While it is fair to believe that a child shouldn’t be forced, do remember that a child is not fully capable of understanding and knowing  what might be best for him. So keep encouraging your little champ to give it a try.

Tennis classes, cricket / soccer coaching, basket ball or swimming lessons-  whatever be it, always give your child the thumbs up to play with friends in the field, for everyone can do with some fresh air and exercize!  And the next time you plan a family outing, remember to pack your cricket kit or what ever your family fancies.

BTW, are you having a FIFA finals party at home? I think it’s a fun idea. 🙂  Involve your children in it and cheer for your favourite team. (Spain, please?)

Contributed by The Ketchup Girl

Big Cook Little Cook

One of the many things I wholeheartedly enjoy doing with my kid is, cooking. It is something I learnt from my mother. I remember spending some fabulous time with my brother, in the kitchen,  helping mom bake our birthday cakes and sometimes even making our own scrambled egg breakfast.

Quite like the Ceebeebie’s ‘Big Cook Little Cook’ show, my four year old and I cook up fun things. And the best part about this is she eats what she makes, no matter how bad it turns out 🙂 !

So then, do try baking cup cakes, fun shaped cookies or for the less adventurous moms and dads, simply hand over a ball of dough and a toy rolling pin to your little one and watch them. This is the best way perhaps to keep them well within your eye-sight while you are in the kitchen, and for sure, is a great way to bond with them. Little minds are like little scheme-engines. Its a little mortifying, the kind of things they can come up with in these play sessions. Don’t be surprised if you five year old rolls out a ‘snake’ or a ‘monster’ and devours it with equal enthusiasm. I assure you, it is a lot of fun.

They say it is good to start your children early on vocational training. Motor skills improve and it is a great opportunity for parents to observe what their child is good at/enjoys/has potential for. A little girl I know loved baking with her mom, but eventually, she enjoyed doing the colour frosting and icing more than anything else. Turns out she is a keen painter and loves experimenting with colours in her drawings.

Its is a great idea to have a birthday tea party, and get all your kid’s friends to bake their own little mini cup cakes. Give them little things to do. Have them all in aprons and watch the little chefs create a mess and have a ball of a time. It can be a lot more fun than a cliché Birthday bash.

I hope you will do these little nothings with your child, who is growing at a lightening speed  and fill up your album of fun memories.

So, how about starting with getting a toy kitchen set for your little ‘un? Or even better, try renting Rentoy’s Tinker Bell Disney Fairies Tea Set! It is available in the trial catalogue too. Buy it if your child really enjoys making you tea later on. 🙂 Rest assured, you will get your tea right in your bed!

Stay cool and have fun!

The Ketchup Girl

How important are toys for your child

How many times have you ended up buying the most expensive toys for your little munchkins only to find them more interested in a broken pencil, a steel spoon, a stray piece of paper? Plenty of times, yah?

The fact is that kids play by themselves with whatever objects they find around them. For all you know your toddler finds a little block of red wood, the most fascinating thing he has ever encountered, or your fingers for that matter. Wiggle them a little and watch your wee baby’s eyes widen and face break into the happiest chuckle.

Toys are mere facilitators. Doesn’t mean they have no role and are a waste of money. Heh, not at all. On the contrary, what I am driving at is the importance of child initiated play and the role toys have in it. Observe your little one and you’ll see them invent a whole lot of games by themselves. When they do that you should  introduce toys to aid the process. Toys can be great stimulators and help in enhancing your child’s all round development – motor skills, cognitive skills etc. To give you a quick example- remember how your kid dragged that pillow all over the house? May be if you introduced toys like  a train with a string/ a dog with a leash/a wooden horse/a cart etc, it will have the intended effect on your child’s mind. What you did only just furthered your child’s creativity. My girl, cuts her toy cake once, everyday. I gave her that one, when she turned two and had just enjoyed cutting her second birthday cake. With that toy cake, its a little unimaginable the kind of stuff she churns out- birthday parties, tea parties, quick snack for her ‘hungry baby’ and a few days back, she had me buy it from her ‘bakery’.

Having said that, please bear in mind, to introduce age appropriate toys and more importantly not to over stimulate them. There is not point in dumping toys of all shapes and sizes and giving them little room to discover each toy at a time.

We know you love your kid and want to give the world and nothing less. But may be you should re-consider your strategy of buying the entire store at a go! Like clothes, children out grow toys too. And when you introduce too many toys at a time, it might just result in the opposite- instead of engaging them, your child might just get plain bored, or as it happens often, stick to one toy leaving behind a mound of toys you affectionately bought for him last evening!

So, it might be a good idea to introduce one/few toys at a time, depending on the stage your child is in. Ensure the toy you are introducing are non-toxic, colourful , age appropriate and stimulating. And like we have harped earlier on this blog- recycle them! Children do not understand the meaning of new/old. Its in our head :).

May be, we can help you?

Contributed by The Ketchup Girl