Heaven and hell

4yo: Mummy, when you die do you want to go to heaven or hell?

Me: Heaven

4yo: Why don't you want to go to hell?

Me: Because God isn't there in hell.

4yo: But how is that possible because God is everywhere!?

Beware when your child begins to read

I am reading a Jodi Picoult novel, and Nidhi standing next to me on the sofa is reading over my shoulder.

Suddenly she asks, "What's virgittiny?" (she pronounces 'g' as in 'girl')

I say, "What?"

She asks again, "What's virgittiny? Why did she lose her virgittiny?"

I close the book, turn towards her and say, "Err... because she wasn't looking after it properly!"

She cares for me

Today I was sitting in the armchair and Nidhi was on my lap. I wanted a glass of water but was feeling too tired to get up, as I had only just sat down. I sighed and said "Ah, Tochuten, when will you be old enough to get me a glass of water?!".

"I can get it now," she said, "if there is a glass not too high that I can reach."

She jumped down from my lap and ran to the kitchen.

"Yes, I can see one." she says, "It's near the sink".

She'll need a small chair to reach it though, so she comes to get it from the usual place near her desk. I am resting my feet on the chair, so I lift them up.

She hesitates and then looks around for the other chair (they are a pair). When she spots it she says "You can use this one, I'll take my timeout chair". The other chair had been moved to the corner of the room for her timeout not very long ago.

She carries it into the kitchen, gets the glass, fills it with water from the tap, and brings it carefully back to me.

I say, "Thank you Tochuten!"

She says "See I am old enough to do it for you now!"

And then she gets me another glass of water.

Last month Nidhi used to go cycling nearly every day after school. The town we live in is very hilly, so the roads are all slopes. Nidhi usually needs help when riding uphill. One day she rode to the park. I didn't play much with her as I was feeling tired and told her that. When we were riding back, she stopped when we reached the usual place that I help her ride uphill. She got off the bike and said "I am not going to make you push the bike because you are tired. I will walk with it uphill." And then she proceeded to do just that.

Odd and even

Rohan has taught Nidhi to identify odd and even numbers based on what they end with. So 0,2,4,6,8=even and the rest are odd.

I have recently been trying to teach her the concept that, while even numbers divide equally into 2, with odd numbers you are left with an 'odd' 1.

She easily identifies odd and even numbers based on the knowledge that daddy has taught. So daddy was asking her large numbers (>100) and she was getting them all right. And she was reasoning it on the ending digit.

When faced with the number 20, she said 'even' and then thought a bit and said "Because two tens make 20, so you can divide it between 2"

Numeracy

Nidhi loves sums and is always asking to do them. Yesterday she wanted to do them when she was getting in for a bath. So I asked her an easy one, "What is 6 and 4?"

Nidhi: "Noooo, give me a difficult maths. Give me the most difficult maths you know."

Me (thinking I'll end it with one question): "What is 65 and 35?"

Nidhi: "65 and 10 is 75, 75 and 10 is 85, 85 and 10 is 95." (pause) "So, 95 and 5 is 100. It's 100."

And we did this several times over ending with 43 and 37 = 80.

She's a genius!

Things they say

Oct 2, 2011

4yo: Mummy, when I grow up and get a husband I will not fight with him, like you.

Me: (thinking in my mind.. uh..oh!) No?

4yo: No, I will tell my husband that when I was a child I decided that I will not fight and argue with him.

Oct 11, 2011

4yo: Why did you tickle me?

Me: Because.... you looked like someone who needs to be tickled

4yo: Then next time I will kick you because you look like someone who needs to be kicked

October 18, 2011

Did God do Plan, Do, Review?

Her prayers

2011, Sep 27

Me: Is there anything you want to ask God?

N: Yes, I want God to give me a kiss, right now.

Tit for tat

Nidhi is very upset that I have taken away her computer using privileges. She cries back:

4yo: Noooo...., because you gave me punishment you are not going to use the computer for the rest of your life.

Me: Why is that?

4yo: In the Bible Jesus said " Do to others what you want you to do to them"

Emails to Amma

2011, Sep 13

i like you. my sunflower has grown so tall. abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Misc

I am explaining something to Nidhi and she keeps asking more questions. Finally she says:

"Give me a reason that I can understand."

When we got back home from India it was night time. The garden was overgrown and looked scary to Nidhi. A few days later when she found out that daddy was coming home, she asked whether it would be night when he arrived. I said yes. She thought a bit and said:

"Nothing is scary when daddy is here in the night"

Things they say

4yo: Do you like me?

Me: Sometimes

4yo: Is now one of the times?

***

Going to bed one day, with her rag doll Piccolo, Nidhi says "I want a real person to sleep with me"

What's not ours

Rohan has been hard-trimming the overgrown hedge. When completed, he looks proudly at it and seeks Nidhi appreciation.

4yo (obligingly): Look Mummy, daddy has made the hedge look so neat!

Me: Yeah, and we have more space now!

4yo: How?

Rohan: Because the hedge was taking up a lot of space in the garden, so now we have more space in the garden.

4yo: Is that Doris's space? (Doris being the neighbour with whom we share the hedge)

Nuts!

At breakfast Nidhi is picking out various nuts from her muesli and asking me to identify them for her.

4yo: Which nut is this?

Me: That's an almond

4yo: And this one?

Me: That's hazelnut

4yo (stares ahead thoughtfully): Do the Indian squirrels eat coconuts?

The art of negotiation

I am downstairs when Nidhi wakes up in the morning and calls for me.

Me (entering her bedroom): Time to wake up!

4yo: Sleep with me for some time. Sleep with me for 3 minutes.

Me (hoping to negotiate): 1 minute

4yo: No, 3 minutes. (Pause). Because you said 1 minute, I am going to make it 4 minutes.

You can't win.

What parents are for

Rohan is away doing a sailing course on the weekend. Nidhi is talking to me while I am washing up.

4yo: Daddy has gone to the coast to learn sailing because you know Mummy, if daddy goes on the boat he must know how to sail. Or if he falls from the boat he will drown. And if he drowns then who will work and earn money for us?

Then you will have to work for us mummy.

But then who will cook for me?

You will have to work and do the cooking.

Yeah, she has it all figured out at 4!!

******

Nidhi has a very unemotional view of death as you can see above. Today she is contemplating about my death.

4yo: Mummy, will you be dead before I am dead?

Me: Yes, I think so

4yo: But that's ok. May be, when I am in the middle of 20 years then you will be dead, because then I don't need you.

Friendship

I like Carla a lot. But I am not going to marry her because a boy should marry her. Even though I like her so much as to marry her. (?!)

Room on the broom

Me and Rohan are sharing a hug when Nidhi appears around our legs, keen to be included. We are purposefully ignoring her.

Nidhi: I am a girl as good as can be. Is there room in the hug for a girl like me?

(adapting lines from one of her story books called Room on the broom)

More on God

Nidhi: Mummy, WHY did God want Jesus to die?

Me: As a punishment for all our sins

Nidhi: But then, why do you still give me time out?

***

Nidhi: Mummy, there are so many people in the world. Is there a God for everybody?

Mummy: God is very big, he can look after everybody in the world.

***

Nidhi: Daddy, can God do anything?

Daddy: Yes

Nidhi: Then can he make other Gods? Then there will be enough Gods to look after everybody in the world.

Thrice times

Nidhi is plucking blossoms from a tree in the garden.

4yo: Here, I got one for you

Me: Thank you

4yo: And I got one for myself and one for daddy

Me: That's good

After some time

4yo: Can I pluck some more

Me:Sure, you can get 2 for each of us. So how many will that be?

4yo: 6

Me: And if you get 3 for each of us, how many will that be (thinking this will be difficult)

4yo: 9

Me (impressed): And if you get 4 for each of us, then how many will that be? (certain that this will stump her)

4yo (without hesitation): 12

I don't know how she does it!

Getting married and other things

Nidhi: If I marry a man having a child then?

Me: That's ok, you can marry a man who has a child. As long as he doesn't have a wife already.

4yo: If I marry a man with a child then he will have two children.

Me: How is that ?

4yo: Because one child will be inside my tummy.

****

Daddy: Nidhi, before you go upstairs can you draw the curtains?

4yo: No, because I don't have white colour (referring to the colour of the curtains)

****

Nidhi was waiting for me to finish cooking, and take her out to ride her bike. We had been counting down every 5 mins from 50 mins. When I said for the second time, that she had to wait for 5 mins more, she protested saying:

4yo: But it has already been some minutes after 5 mins

Me: Ok, then 4 and a half minutes more

She was very quiet for a while, so I went to check. She was sitting, with her hands in front of her, like she was counting.

Me: What are you doing?

4yo: I'm counting two 120s and 30

Me: What? (not understanding the calculation)

4yo (repeats): Two 120s and 30