Reading to her 70+ year old grandmother,

Her: Patti, kuttyma and you be astronauts. Go on spaceship to moon

Patti: (swoons) My grandkids took me overseas. My great granddaughter is going to take me to the moon.

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I was on an after hours work related conference call. I had the line on mute and was listening in.

Me: I am in a meeting. I will read 1 book to you and after that you play by yourself. You should not keep calling me “Mommy” and disturb me.

She nods her head. We read the story and I turn my attention to the call. Few seconds later

Her: amma come play with me.

I look at her in exasperation.

Her: See I did not call you “mommy”. I called you amma. Amma come play with me

Moments like this make me want to cry as I try to walk the tightrope and balance doing things I love

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Another night and another struggle getting her to sleep

Me: Close your eyes and sleep now

Her: If I close my eyes I cannot see mommy.

The innocence in her words makes me weak.

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Her: What do you want for your birthday mommy?

I am in tears

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She was ordering her dad around – she is in that stage now – Zip your mouth, Jump with me NOW, Come with me – I said come with me – yaada yaada

R: Yes ma’am

Her: (Confused) ma’am

R: Yes – you are a kutty ma’am. Kuttyma ma’am

Her: Mommy ma’am and Da-da ma’am get up now!

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We were talking about earth and earthquakes. She remembers the one off Sumatra a few months back and seeing videos and photos of the same.

Her: This is the earth. It shakes (moves her hands to mime a quake) and people do click-click and take pictures – we see on comp -puter

Ofcourse I had to hide my laugh and correct her and inform her that buildings collapse and people get scared