Yohaan ‘isms’ – 2014

Owing to my selective (read - poor) memory (it’s really weird what I can and can’t remember, so I don’t trust my memory one bit),  by mid-year, I realised that some of the laughs we have had this year will be soon forgotten. They were all due to the cuteness and innocence of Yohaan’s 5 year old brain and really had to be recorded in some way. So here we are!

Now, I don’t need to worry about my failing memory and we can all enjoy a few simple giggles even years later.

Firstly, At 5 years old- he believes he wants to be fireman or a soldier!

August 2014

Yohaan: Mama, Manish is my best friend.
Me: oh really, why do you think so?
Yohaan in utter disbelief at my stupid question: “he knows my name!!”
Wow! Welcome to a world of simple expectations and pure innocence.

31 August 2014

Yohaan’s football club had friendly matches at another venue. He had recently joined so he was not a part of the team. I took him to the match so he could observe and understand. His club wears red and they were playing against the blue team. I asked him to observe how his team plays and asked him to cheer when they pass or kick or make a goal.

He decided that he likes the blue team better so I explained to him that he belongs to the red team so he should cheer his team, not the other team!

Uh-uh, no way that was happening today! 

I was so amazed to see this behaviour in him. But I realised how much he has to still learn about life. Team spirit and a sense of belonging can be achieved only over time. He won’t belong, just because he is told to belong. He has to spend time and sweat over something before he begins to love it.

This reminded me of the message from the fox to the prince from ‘Le petit prince’.

 "It is the time you have spent for your rose that makes your rose so important."  …. You are responsible for your rose..."

7^th Sept 2014

3rd football class (Sundays only), the club organised a prize distribution ceremony for good performances over the last year for all age groups. Yohaan is lead to the 4-5 age group seats and he seats himself on the front bench and attends the whole ceremony with his group. After the prizes and the speeches, we were dismissed and I saw him shoot a terribly hurt look back at me. (I was sitting at the back with the parents) I braced myself for what was to come next. He came to me and seemed genuinely upset that he didn’t get a prize! So far he has only been to parties or occasions where every child gets something to take back home, so this award ceremony was very new to him! On our way home, we had a long chat about the awards being a reward for coming for football practice and trying our best. I reassured him that if he keeps going for practice regularly and trying his best to learn and improve then he too will get such an award and I will be so proud of him. Well, he tried to understand it, but it still didn’t go down very well.

However, he recovered from the intense grief, as soon as I told him we have noodles for breakfast when we get back home.

15 Sept 2014

Yohaan is 5 years and 4 months old. Speaks clearly and like to make up stories and plays along.

On the phone, “hello mama one second, baba has come early, he wants to talk to you.”
Changes his voice : “hello (gruff impersonation), how are you? I came home early.
Me playing along: “ oh hi baba, wow you are lucky, so did you finish all your work?”
Yohaan : YES
Me: “Good,  what time is your Yoga class?”
Yohaan as himself: “Mama, its only ME, Yohaan.” (SO proud he could trick me)
Me: “ oh! really! I thought it was baba on the phone”
Yohaan: Wicked laugh! Hahhahehe
LOL

From the ages 4 to 5 yohaan loved to tease with these fav words:

Mr. Mama! Mr. Baba! Mr. chicken loppi! Mr Chicken hoppi! chiki pakalu!
Mr. potato head! (pronouncing head with a loud Hhh eeaaaa ddd)
You have a durian face!
You are a banana man. or you are a banana head.
Oh you stinky shoe! Khi khi khi he has the most amazing laugh.

He loves to crack jokes too. They aren’t real jokes but totally funny nevertheless. (a fav joke is the "Knock, knock, whose there, its poo-poo (so similar)")

Words mix-up

He’s been doing that since he started speaking and to most new words, these are ones I can remember...
Fosa – sofa
Hostipal  - hospital
Shinish – finish
A Papartment – apartment
gantapi - ganpati

8^th October 2014
Yohaan and I were playing in his room after dinner. Yohaan had taken his Thomas and friends blocks and had hidden Spiderman inside one of those. The plan was to show me a magic trick and make Spiderman appear.

When he was ready he said, “mama I have a cunning plan, it will blow your mind!”

Well, the trick didn’t, but his sentence did!! LOL J Amazing how he picks up these phrases!

22^rd October 2014 – Diwali season.
General lazy time on the bed. Yohaan was rolling around and I asked him, “Yoyo, how much do you love mama?” So he made a tiny pinch with his fingers and said, “ this much” to which I made a grumpy face. To please me, he then changed it and said with wide arms, “ no thissss much!” We hugged and cuddled.

Observing our little drama, baba decided to try his luck at the same game. “Yoyo, how much do you love baba?” Baba asked. Once again Yoyo makes a pinch and says, “this much”. Baba followed the cue and made a grumpy face. Then Yohaan widened his arms ever so slightly and says, “ok this much”. To which Baba said, “why only this much for baba and so much for mama?”

Then with a very matter of fact expression on his face, Yohaan said, “because mama has chubby cheeks!”

We all burst out laughing! He has the most amazing logic in the world. Works well for me! :)

20 November 2014

School holidays have begun and Mr Yoyo is enjoying himself. I call him around lunch time on most days. I have the typical routine mom-questions on, what he ate, where he played and what he studied etc.  So I spoke to him today as normal and was about the hang up. Then he stopped me.

“Wait, wait! Mama, so tell me, what you are doing in office today?” (followed by who, why and when)

HAHA it was sudden and totally unexpected, but I managed to scrape thru the interrogation. :) He is growing to be very smart and observant.

30 November 2014

We went out for dinner to little India as we were craving Biryani. Google showed the first review of Juggies as the best biryani in Singapore. (well, if that was the best I cannot hope for much in Singapore as accordingly to us, what we ate, was NOT biryani at all! and it’s miles away from being the best! )

Well that aside, on the way back we drove past a mosque and Yohaan asked, “mama, what is this with the moon and star?” so I said, that is a “masjid” where we go to pray “Allah, Allah”… so he mimicked, “azza azza” and did his “laugh at one’s own joke thing” (which no doubt he has got from me ;))

Then, we passed a temple (south Indian) with a few big statues of Hanuman and Ram in bold colours. So he asked, what is that? So I said, that is a temple where we pray to Gods like Ganapati and explained that that particular statue he was looking at, was of Hanuman. He knows ‘Ganatapi’(as he calls it) but he had not heard of Hanuman from us before and wanted to know more. I tried to explain,  “it’s a very powerful god. He can lift a whole mountain. He has the body of a man and the face and tail like a monkey”.

To this Yohaan exclaimed “ whoa!! what!” a mixed sound of wonder, amazement and disbelief in those elf eyes.

We all burst out laughing at his truthful and obvious expression. A truthfulness which only a child can show. It shows how conditioned we have become. We have learned to believe without questioning. (even things that obviously don’t make sense to a pure and innocent mind of a child)

So here were some of the memories, stories, laughs of 2014.