A'udhu billahi mina sh-shaytaanir-rajeem! Bismillah...

Saturday, October 12, 2013

We hit 4!

Yes, we have entered fabulous four! Just can't believe!!! It's been four years since our little bundle of joy came to our life. Never in my life I thought that four years is a short time. But, today I did!

Last year, though it's been one of the wonderful years of our parenthood with tremendous changes in L, so many changes in our life, I am sad that I was not able to record them. So, looking back to L's past year, let me recall some best milestones.


Weaving stories and rhymes:

At 3.5 years, I noticed that Liya sings just too many rhymes. Almost one new rhyme she learned everyday. Over time I noticed that some of them are somewhat similar and I asked who taught you this song. "No one, I did it myself". "You did it yourself...?" That's where I learned that she is making rhymes on her own. :) That was so brilliant. So, I asked her to make some for me. Staring at my MacBook she made this in a minute.

"My momma got a laptop...
It's white in color...
When it's black (she meant the screen)
That means it is OFF..."

Another one she made about her Momma.

"My momma is a good momma,
She makes muffins...
I love her so much..."

There were so many she made and tuned to resemble some popular rhymes. Unfortunately I can't remember all of them.

Around this time she was good in weaving stories as well. Her teach Ms. J said she shared so many made up stories with teacher and kids...:)


Reading on her own: 

Yes, I said that. A milestone achieved around 3 years and 8 months of age. The first ever word she read was "rooster" from the Eric Carlie book "Rooster's is off to see the world"..

Well, though I was excited to see her read alone, I have not encouraged much on this. I read many educators and early childhood specialists saying it's not a very good thing to make kids read early. I also learned, according to Waldorf philosophy, kids should start reading only at 6. But, what made me happy about Liya's reading is that she did it on her own. She has learned phonics and one day she asked why we need to learn the sounds of each letter. I realized that she is clueless on why writing C and learning its phonetical sound as "ka". I told her that's the first step in reading and showed her how to read a word combining each sound. Since then my hardworking little tot put tremendous effort in identifying and reading words.

Again, till now, we are not insisting her to read. But never discourage when she eagerly reads hoardings, news paper heading etc. Though she is not yet a fluent reader, she can read simple words and easy sentences. Well, she might take 5 minutes to read a sentence, nevertheless she does a wonderful job.


Letters and numbers:


She can write all alphabets, her name and numbers up to 20. Writing her name is an art she mastered nearly an year ago. She even adds one digit numbers quite often.


Crafts and exploration:

She has turned into a craft lover. Making whole lot of things with paper and scissors, cropping almost everything she comes across and painting everywhere. She is not bad in drawing as well. She can draw many things she sees around or she loves. She often draw her friends, beautiful landscapes etc.

Thinker and inquisitive:

She has never been as inquisitive as in the past year.  She had never ending list of questions with every silly thing she came across. At times, we completely ran out of answers or were totally puzzled on what to answer.

She thinks a lot. A lot means really a lot, at times! She thinks the way J or I never imagine she would and puts us in total dilemma. These days, every word we tell her/ in front of her needs to undergo at least two self- reviews before it comes out from mouth. Many times, she stores and relate into the same after may be couple of weeks or even months and say "But momma the other day you told like this, and today you are saying the opposite..."

Language development:

She has a perfect English grammar, said her old school teacher during PTM. Though she still uses "keeped, sleeped etc." and "I has".. "She have..." in her sentences, I think she got a good hold on English.
Hindi- she understands well and she can even speak in bits and pieces.
Malayalam- one language she mastered over last year, thanks to our frequent visits to grand parents. She had started to pick  up telugu slowly and that's when we shifted from Hyderabad to Bangalore. I hope she will learn Kannada soon.
Arabic, she knows many of the alphabets. Though she is after me asking to teach her Arabic, Hindi and Malayalam alphabets, I personally thought that I will do it over coming years, In Sha Allah. We did not want to dumb her head with too many things at a time.

Loving, caring and sharing:

Never did she love to share, but this year she learned it and enjoyed the beauty of sharing and giving. She loved buying gifts and giving to others. Moreover, never insisted us to buy same things for her.

How about your little women run to you, kiss all over your cheeks and hands, hug and tell you "I love you so much" every time you find yourself totally lost in the busy work. That's where I was. Whenever I go mad with my exams at door steps and some unexpected happenings at work (yes I still work from home), this is what she does to me. Ma Sha Allah!

Ever since we left US, we have been visiting her grand parents quite often and now she has grown very closer to our extended family. That's another wonderful thing happened in the last year. She is enjoying all the love and care poured over. That's something every preschooler will love, I am sure.

Metamorphosis:

Again, last year brought forth a complete metamorphosis in her. She has always been one of those shy, reserved and peaceful kids. She was kinda of unsocial and usually took lot of time to get along. But the past year witness an end to end change in her. No more shy, no more reserved. very energetic and demanding child, mingling with everyone in the new school, making new friends everyday. The whole credit belongs to her school in Hyderabad, Globe toters, and her wonderful teachers, especially Ms. Jyothy. They have groomed her so well and I am proud of it. Her teacher in the current school did not even believe that she was a reserved and shy girl until a few months ago. She made numerous friends in the apartment play area and in the school as well. Alhamdulillah!


Health:

All Praises to Almighty, she has been totally healthy and fit through the year passed by. We took her only once to doc when she was affected by tonsillitis for the first time, throwing up everything including water she drank. Except that she was able to survive every cold, fever and cough attacks with my healthy home remedies. Alhamdulillah (Thank God)! Her weight and height gain also were ideal for the age.

That's all about the major things happened in the year passed by. Indeed a wonderful year. All Praises are due to Almighty for blessing us with a lovely little bug.

Note to Liya:


Dear Little L,

I don't know how many parents would say "we had a sail through pregnancy and in bringing up a newborn to a preschooler so smoothly" . But we do say, Alhamdulillah. Over the last four years, not even a single or a half night we spent sleepless. Not even a day we said "we are tired..." You have been one of those rare breed little ones - peace loving, caring and understanding. I recall no instances where you cried hardly, making us and people around us worried...  You have comprehended everything I taught- sharing, wanting and needing, cleanliness, being independent and taking care of yourself and never been a fussy eater either. All I can say is that "In Sha Allah (If God Wills), if I get any more children, I hope they will be just like you in every sense..." Thank you for gifting us with a wonderful parenting experience which rarely any parent will get in a lifetime. 

We hope and pray you shall grow into a wonderful women as caring, loving, understanding, sharing and independent as now.. Or even more that! Love you! May God bless and guard you always... 

Momma and Pappa


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