'Small' Talk

My niece Rachel is now 2 years and 9 months and she says the cutest things. She’s like a mini human being, living her life. She has her problems, and her choices in clothes, her likes and dislikes, her hobbies, and even her own check-in luggage!! Rachel is a typical girl - eats sparingly, likes to dress up, loves to be photographed, enjoys shopping and has a fetish for high heeled shoes!!! I spent quiet some time talking to my sister the other day and we were going over her cute statements. So I thought I should document them lest I forget.

Rachel’s best friend’s name is Aditi (Ya, she has a best friend!! They are the same age. I told ya, mini human being :). So one day Rachel was missing Aditi and she wanted to talk to her. She forced her mom to phone Aditi’s mom. And they had a conversation:

Aditi: Hello

Rachel: Hello

Aditi: Rachel How is Jacob? (Aditi totally loves Rachel’s younger brother Jacob, 9 months)

Rachel: Oh, Jacob is saying Blah Blah Bli Bli. (He was just learning to talk, and that’s all he said :D )

One morning, while I was visiting my sister, I woke up to a wailing and crying Rachel. She was standing outside the kitchen and crying, tears streaming down her cheeks, while my sister, totally unperturbed, was making breakfast.

Me: What is it Rachel? Do you want Rose Mai to give you a big huggy?

Rachel: (Even more loudly) Waaaaa.....

Me: (really sad... can't take it when Rachel cries) Diya, why is she crying?

Diya: Oh, she doesn't like to wear the pink shirt with the frock. She doesn't think it looks good. Leave her alone for a minute. She'll be OK.

Me: (I don't think it looks good either!! At least she has good taste!!) Do you want a red pencil? your book? a Ummah?

Rachel: (Ear splitting) Waaaaa....

Diya: Nothing works... Leave her alone.

Me: (Give Diya a 'what kind of a mother are you' look and go sit on the sofa)

After a minute or so, Just as Diya predicted, Rachel stopped crying. Diya offered her an FT (French Toast) and they hugged happily. Seeing this I jumped in for a group hug, but got a 'why are you interrupting my mommy time' look from Rachel. :( Sigh... I guess mommy knows best....

It was Thanksgiving time and Diya, David and kids had been with us. During that time, Rachel got pretty close to us as well as Paul’s parents. One day after they had gone back to Denver, Rachel had an argument with Diya and she was very mad. The conversation that followed is one of my favorites:

Rachel: I don’t like you. I’m going away.

Diya: (Laughing) Where are you going to go?

Rachel: Give me my check-in luggage. I’m going to go to Rose Mai and Paul Uncle’s house (Yipppeeee :D )

Diya: OK, you go. Who’s stopping you?

Rachel: I’m going, give me my check-in luggage. (According to her all luggage is check-in luggage and she thinks you can’t get on a plane without the check-in luggage)

Diya: (Laughing even harder) But Paul Uncle and Rose Mai have gone to the office.

Rachel: OK, then I’ll go to Kuriappan Uncle’s house. (:D That’s Paul’s Dad!! There’s no fooling kids!!) Give me my check-in luggage!!

For some odd reason, my sister’s kids like big words. The bigger they are, the more syllables they have, the more they like them. My nephew Jacob's first word was Da-Da, second word was Ma-Ma and the third word was - 'Tylenol'!! (I guess their advertising is working!) My niece Rachel learnt the alphabet and she does the letter-to-word association, like ‘A’ for apple, and so on. Some of them are interesting.

'D' for Dinosaur. (Not Dog, Not Door, Dinosaur. Bigger the word...)

'H' for Hippopotamus. (More than half the people here don’t know how to spell this!! :D)

'R' for Rhinoceros. (Why not R for Rose Mai? I suppose she thought, if they both weigh the same.... :)

But my most favorite statement off all is this one: She was having a bath when she turns around and tells her mother, "I like Rose Mai!" :D (What? You were expecting something more??!? The kid spontaneously declared her affection for me!! That's a big deal people!!)