a common man ಸಂಜಯ

Category: baby

  • art tutor for a day

    Very unexpectedly, I ended up teaching a couple of neighborhood kids how to paint. Here are some of the ideas.

    Assumed that there is already an initial outline picture on the paper which is to be filled in…

    • only the tip of the paintbrush should be dipped in paint, not the entire brush.
    • first paint the outline very carefully and neatly, making sure not even a single drop of paint comes outside, and then paint the interior gradually
    • use only strokes in the same direction as much as possible
    • wait for a coat to dry before applying a second coat
    • clean the brush thoroughly after use
    • its good to buy a coloring book which has empty outlines where the child can paint inside. But its can also be fun to actually ask him what he wants to draw, draw the outline for him on the spot, and then he paints it.

    [optional reading] Background trigger… series of unrelated events…

    I was recently watching What Dreams May Come had seen it earlier once long ago, but watching it again the dialogues and story was more rivetting than ever, and the main point related to this post is that there’s a LOT of painting involved in this movie…

    Was browsing through the very colorful Jana’s Journal and appreciating the lovely pictures there…

    And recently was writing to my Mukthabalaga friends on a nice activity at home – my wife gives my son a watercolor paintbox and paintbrush, and then sits with him somewhat nonobstrusively, aiding him to just experiment with colors.

    So recently a couple of neighbouring kids were playing at home with Abhinav, and they started using his paint set and I was passing by and was really aghast looking at them scrubbing the paper like they were using a toilet brush to remove a stain. I had to stop myself from shouting “NOooo Noooo nOOOO…” :mrgreen: So sat down with them, and started explaining how to paint. As I started, I started recollecting more and more how I used to really enjoy painting during my school days – and it was a really nice time 😎

  • ಯಾರಿಟ್ಟರು ಈ ಚುಕ್ಕಿ?

    ನನ್ನ mobile screen ಹಾಳಾಗೊಗಿದೆ – ಅದರ ಮಧ್ಯೆ ಒಂದು ದೊಡ್ಡ ಕರಿ ಚುಕ್ಕಿ ಆಗಿದೆ. ನನ್ನ ಪುಟಾಣಿ ಜಿಂಕೆ ಮರಿ ಅವನಿಗೆ ಕೊಟ್ಟ ಆಟ ಸಾಮಾನೆಲ್ಲ ಬಿಟ್ಟು ಇದನ್ನೇ ಬೀಕೆನ್ನುವಾಗ ನಾನು ನಿರಾಕರಿಸದೆ ಕೊಟ್ಟಿರುವುದಕ್ಕೆ ನನಗಾಗಿರುವ ಶಿಕ್ಷೆ.

    ನಮ್ಮ ಕಛೇರಿಯಲ್ಲಿ ಯಾರೋ ಕೇಳಿದರು – ಯೀನೈತು ಸಾರ್ ಅಂಥ.

    ಹೇಳಿದೆ… “ಅಪ್ಪನ ಮೊಬೈಲ್ ಗೆ ಧುಷ್ಟಿ ಆಗಬಾರದು ಅಂಥ ನನ್ನ ಮಗ ಕರಿ ಚುಕ್ಕಿ ಇಟ್ಟಿರೋದು”

  • wwf baby makes peace

  • my homework videos

    As a welcome relief for all your poor readers (in case there are still any left) subject to my Dad’s ignorant perceptions, this is Abhinav managing to get a word in.

    You might be wondering what an easy life it is for a baby. But here you will see the how hard I have to work… I’m probably the youngest case of child labour in the world.

    Here I am washing some clothes…

    …and sweeping the floor…

    But its not too bad a deal, apart from free accomodation, oota (food) and lala, I’ve also something my Dad doesn’t even want to consider owning even at his age… a bathtub + jacuzzi (manually operated by him)…

    Here I am… setting it up for use… this transparent liquid thing is so slippery…

  • a for apple, b for bat … r for revenge…

    This is a very common scene… when a small baby falls down and starts crying, one way to console him (or her) is to exclaim “BAD floor!!” or “BAD table!” or whatever he bumped against, in a very angry tone. This kind of brings a pause in the crying… Then distract the child further by getting him to hit the object saying “atthaaa!” (baby talk for take that!). The kid soon starts enjoying this, saying “atthaaa! atthaaa!” knocking the object to glory and starts smiling again.

    This seems to be a pretty tried and tested most convenient approach to comfort a child. But somehow it may well be a way for him to learn to live a lie – the assumption that something else other than himself is responsible for what happens to him. And of course one possible consequence for this absence of truth is revenge 😈 In any case, he’s going to be seeing ‘role models’ for this immature lack of any sense of responsibility in plenty of movies and media over time.

    [But then of course there are exceptions which I believe is extremely important to not miss simply taking for granted – but cherish and highlight, for example the amazing case of Rajiv Gandhi’s daughter]

    While bringing up my infant son, who keeps bumping into something every now and then, we do need some practical solution. (Earlier I used to feel a bit guilty that we should take better care of him and avoid him getting hurt at all, but I’ve finally learnt that this is impossible, and it seems that he would never learn without falling 🙄 (hmm remembering the movie Finding Nemo 😉 ) )

    So… as a parent my wife or me need to console him somehow in that situation. Without the most convenient solution “take that!!!” solution, what are alternative approaches…?

    One possible action – not very easy one, is to leave him alone and let him console himself. It was quite hard to stop myself from running and picking him up immediately, but it did work well in case of minor bumps – after a bit of crying, he’d look around and see that everybody’s minding their own business, and then get back to his playing. But a bit harder then this was impossible (for us to restrain ourselves 😉 so we’ll never want to try that out too much :mrgreen: )

    Another possible action, after of course immediately giving him a hug and showing that we really empathise with him, is to ask him “yelli yETaitu?” (“where did you get hurt?”)

    This seems to work pretty well – over time as he’s starting to communicate better, he stops his crying and says “DUM!” to indicate that he had a bump, nowadays points to where he got hurt, and kind of rationalises the whole thing in a pretty cool way 😎

    Any other ideas or experiences welcome.

  • two ways to bring up a child

    Recently someone from America had come on a visit to India. She has two granddaughters in the US, elder one she has brought up with more attention in her own way, compared to the younger one. And there on the phone was her elder granddaughter, wailing away and completely miserable not able to eat properly also, just pleading that her granny comes back home as soon as possible.

    I felt really sorry for her granddaughter. But for the grandmother and all her sisters, it was a kind of satisfaction about how much the grandchild loved her.

    There are countless ways to bring up a child – but in my view they primarily come down to two aspects. They are of course not mutually exclusive, and there is no absolute black or white.

    One is the way adults involved want them to be brought up. There is a strong feeling that one knows the best way to bring up children. there is a strong feeling of ownership for the child to be brought up “my way”. Here the adult knows better than the child. Here the child is considered as more like a cute doll than an intelligent individual. The child is expected to owe a lot of obligation to the adult. Threatening or bribing the child to get any expected behavior is a convenient habit.

    And the other is the way where the adult acknowledges that there may be a better way than what they already know, and willing to learn it from whatever sources life manifests as. The child is not a doll, but an independent intelligent individual, and is respected and treated as one. Threatening or bribing the child to get any expected behaviour may happen only as a last resort. In fact, the child is able to learn by itself and the function of the adult is mainly only to facilitate and support. Therefore the child owes nothing to the adult, as its simply a priviledge for the adult to have gotten such an opportunity.

  • the great takeover

    Now that this fellow is taking over, I can sit back and relax… 😉

    retirement plan

    Heh heh, but seriously – I hope I manage to not let any of my own ambitions or interests bother him! :mrgreen:

    ——

    Dear reader, thanks for visiting, I’ve just been a bit “busy” 🙄 but will catch up with this site soon…

  • its fun learning Kannada!

    Learn Kannada online at Sampada…

  • learning to crawl

    My son left on his own, first cried a bit trying to get anyone’s attention, and then tried moving around by himself. It seems like such a miracle how hard it is to for us to learn just to move one little inch forward!

    He was quite persistent for a while, gradually frustration and helplessness seemed to be setting in. After a while before he could start crying I try to give some support and encouragement, and then then hopefully before he gets too tired finally carry him to give some rest.

    (there are other background sounds like firecrackers, voices etc and some that I myself wonder where they came from – you may just ignore these sounds – they’re quite irrelevant to the video)

    Its pretty amazing when I realise I was once in his situation a long time ago. I wonder have I really gone a long way forward now? Though now I can walk run jump etc, I am still pretty much the same in so many other aspects :mrgreen: In some new skill in my career, or more importantly, in learning to truly love, on learning to walk the razor edge of the noble path.

    And just as I’m not in any particular hurry for my son to start crawling around – I hope to allow him take his own time for his own unique milestones – I suppose I must allow myself to learn at my own pace 🙂 – and strike a right balance between enthusiastic encouragement and non-chalant relaxation as if no progress ever mattered 8)

    In my own aspects where I’m trying to learn, occasionally, a helpless feeling sets in – like “I’m not getting anwhere”! Somewhere a bit of encouragement and support helps a lot… sometimes I hit a kind of brick wall!

    “But remember, the brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”

    …says Randy.

    His struggles are my struggles – I would really love for him to win, and to be in a better position to encourage him that he can win, I feel more inspired to win my own now.

  • what to name him

    Thanks a ton – to everyone – who suggested names for my son! Well that almost sounded like poetry, but I guess Robert Frost dosen’t really have to worry about competition :mrgreen:

    That everything is changing – that “The only thing constant is change” – is a well known but most easily forgotten fact.

    The most powerful implication of not just understanding, but digesting and internalising this – is that: EVERY MOMENT IS NEW

    Even with just the little bit that Sanjay somehow seems to have at times managed to do, one thing is clear. That the Sanjay of the previous moment – inspite of all his most precious posessions or regrets or fond memories – is gone. Whatever he knew of love is already old and outdated.

    And that this is a new moment. He’s born again – and he can reinvent himself from scratch. Into a world of infinite possibilities – limitless potential! Life – the good, bad and ugly of it – is always new and fresh. He can always learn to love again, maybe a little more sincerely than before!

    He and his wife quite like the name Abhinav for their son. A name that simply means NEW.

    Something that that happens to be a reminder of these simple, yet most easy to take for granted ideas – to stay new, young, always a student 😎

    araLuva hoova

    ——
    PS: Btw another plus point he found after the decision, was that “Abhinav” had a lower number of google results compared to several other shortlisted names so is relatively more unique 😉

    One of the readers recommended building a site for him like this article says… Tots getting Internet identity at birth. But for now I’d rather let Abhinav just create his own space if he ever wants to 😛