The warrior princess diaries - XIV

"Whenever there is no post for a few weeks. I start worrying that Xena is not well. Can you just write a twitter-like post that all is well?"

Idom, one of the bar's purana bewdas, wrote this on my last post and I was really touched. Actually this is not the first time someone has told me that when I don't blog for a while, they worry about Xena's health. My apologies once again to all bewdas for falling off the face of the earth. I'm pleased to report that there have been no major issues with her health, and September was in fact, hospital-free. (Touchwood)∞

I had taken on a large project with very tight deadlines and had been working hard to complete it. It is done and dusted and I wait eagerly for the publisher to top up Xena's 'milk-and-diaper fund', which is what I call my freelance project fees. Well, it will soon be only 'milk fund' as she's almost fully toilet-trained. So before I get started on my next project and disappear again (hopefully not), I decided to take some time off this rainy Friday night (one that Viv is cursing; he has a cricket match tomorrow) to write this post.

Let me start off with Xena's latest video, where she's solving a 12-piece jigsaw puzzle and jubilantly exclaiming, "Hooooo gayaaaa!" ("It's done!" after completing it. The woman loves jigsaw puzzles. And now she's getting me interested in them too.



In the next video, she is cutting a toy cake and singing the 'Happy birthday' song. She absolutely loves birthday parties, especially the cutting of the cake, and so it leaves me utterly amazed that after eyeing the cake with such fascination, when it is time to take a bite, she simply turns her face away and says, "Don't want." I have asked this 834943504958438789 times and I will ask again, "Which kid on earth hates cake???" And ice-cream... and lollipops... and cookies... and all the other stuff that regular mommies actually have to moderate when giving their kids? Check out how readily she agrees to eat the cake in the video. You know why? Because... it's made of plastic!



However, things are looking slightly better. Her teachers tell me that on some days, she's able to eat 1/4 of a bowl for lunch (the average kid in her class eats 1-2 bowls). She's also opening up to eating grown-up solids, like microscopic pieces of pancake and cheese and pasta and paratha. Though I must say I was quite offended when she looked at the mini-paratha I made for her last week and said, "Xena scared of this big, brown bug."

Last week, she saw a parrot eat a flower on the tree outside our living room and loudly said, "Oh nooooooo! Parrot, please don't eat the flower! Eat some khana (food)... eat some spicy noodles!" Hmmmph! You're the one to talk, lady?!

She may have Viv's virgo-ness (she actually asks to see how much dirt the vacuum cleaner has collected!) but when it comes to shoes, she's all me. Muahahaha. I took out a couple of my high heels from storage after almost 4 years and was cleaning them, when she turned up, picked them up and took off!



Speaking of virgo-ness, here she is, helping Viv mop the floor as he takes a breather. I like how she struggles to maneuver the mop and yet declares confidently, "Sara dirty dirty ko bye bye kar do!" ("Say bye bye to all the dirty dirty!") And then does a victory dance when she's done!



On Navratri, she got invited to a kanya puja organised by a neighbour. I was thrilled at the chance of dressing her up in an Indian outfit, complete with bindi and bangles.

If you remember her obsession with fairness and taking turns, she was at it during the puja too. She was first in the queue and she stood there after her turn overseeing the rest of the proceedings and making sure no one cut the queue. She also glared disapprovingly at one of the other little girls who refused to stand on the thali to get her feet washed. I have a photo of that but I can't post it here as there are others' kids in it. And by the way, as expected she refused to eat the puja food (yummy puris, chana, halwa and aloo ki sabzi, which I polished off after she dutifully rejected it), but she did have the top crunchy layer of half a puri. The other mommies only had amused looks for my jubilation at this, as their kids wolfed down the food and asked for seconds.

This post has come to its end, but in answer to another bewda's comment (Ruminating Optimist's "Look forward to your post on "how to keep her engaged without switching on the TV?") I promise that's coming up next! I have been meaning to write it for ages now, so thank you for the reminder!

See you soon. Until then, stay crazy!