In response to my complaints that Katya is not picking up our mothertongue, Kannada, and talks in English all the time, Mrs. Porcupyn tried to start off with lesson 0.1:
Mrs. P: Katya, what does 'ooru' mean?
Katya (brightly): One hundred.
Mrs. P: No Katya, 'nooru' means one hundred, What does 'ooru' mean?
At this point, I decided to step in and bat for my <a href="http://porcupyn.wordpress.com/2010/12/13/tales-of-katya-katya-appas-defence-attorney/">attorney</a>. Invoking the spirit of <a href="http://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/kalidas.html">Kalidasa </a>(in the manner he beat his wife in debating), I explained: Just like 'eeruLLi' and 'neeruLLi' mean the same (onions) in Kannada, similarly, Katya must have determined that 'ooru' and 'nooru' are the same. ;-)
So, we come home from school (daycare, to be precise). As is her wont, Katya had her requests lined up:
"Appa, may I watch TV?"
Appa (how can I let your mind starve for the whole day without your TV, my child?): "Sure"
"Appa, may I have a brownie?"
Appa (how can I let your stomach starve in the evening, my child?): "Su ... Oh, waitaminute! Finish the 2/2 waffle from this morning that you did (could) not finish before you had to rush to school!"
Katya (five minutes later): "Appa, I am done. Now may I have the brownie?"
Appa (good job - you've finished your breakfast, my child!): "OK ... Ooooh, waitaminute!" (memories of uneaten lunches past come flooding to the father, who has to listen to a daily tantrum that child throws at mother in defence of those uneaten lunches) "Did you finish your lunch?"
Katya: "Ummmm ... No."
Appa (glad at having staved off tantrum of the day): "Eat that first then!"
She's finished her breakfast (finally); now I am now waiting for her to finish her lunch, so I can approve the snack (brownie).
Note: The above sequence of events would've been impossible without the catalyst in the background (the TV, of course).
Update: She is only halfway through lunch ... and has quit for the time being. :-(
Normal sibling rivalry - nothing new to this dad, who in his own heyday, had a healthy rivalry going with his sister too - resulted in Baab barricading himself in his room. After letting him fester in his room for a few minutes, Katya could not stand it any longer; she fired up this missive and slid it under Baab's room's door.
<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/siblings11.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1537" title="katya to baab - 1" src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/siblings11.jpg?w=217" alt="" width="217" height="300" /></a>
As is typical elder brother behavior, the result was an emphatic - all-caps - NO! Undeterred, Katya wrote another entreaty around the <em><strong>NO</strong></em>. Brother could not help relenting. Kids are back to normal "best" behavior now!
<a href="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/siblings21.jpg"><img class="aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1538" title="katya to baab - 2" src="http://porcupyn.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/siblings21.jpg?w=217" alt="" width="217" height="300" /></a>