Kidspeak

If there is one thing I have learnt from parenting it is this - its your kids that teach you the art of being cunning. Its not that I had put my noggin on a backburner all this while, but when it comes to Anoushka, my brains have learnt to scale new levels of cunning for the most simplest of tasks.
Let me illustrate. After what seemed a lifetime, I managed to potty train Anoushka - a real milestone my mother assured me. Of course there are still a couple of minor accidents around the house. And the potty training is only partial - the download for the day still happens within the confines of her underwear.
Many mothers will identify with the incident I am about to narrate. I was still not very confident of taking Anoushka out without the reassurance of her wearing a diaper. So there we were on a shopping spree and my daughter decides that she needs to pee in the middle of the Crocodile showroom. I try to convince her to do it in her diaper and she howls louder saying she wants the pot. On the spur on the moment - I held her hands, asked her to squat into position and told her to let go. I could see the relief on her face and immediately she bent down to see where her stuff went. A challenge once again - and the first thing that popped to mind was - magic susu - What??!!!. But what do you know - she fell for it and now I use it as a convenient tool. Though Anoushka does show signs on calling my bluff.
It never ceases to amaze me on how fast the children of today are - at two Anoushka's sentences are whole and grammatically perfect. Her sense of observation is scary at times. Her vocabulary can astound - I mean at her age I couldn't even garble rhinocerous and hippopotamus. It sometimes makes me wonder whether we as parents are really equipped to channel our kids the right way. But then parenting is all about trial and error and so far we have all done pretty well.