Conversations with a 3 Year Old

A Teachable Moment

Me: Did I tell you that you should not jump around when climbing stairs?
Him: Yes
Me: What happened last night?
Him: I jumped and slipped, and rolled down the stairs.
Me: How did that feel?
Him: It hurt.
Me: What did I tell you about hitting bats on stuff?
Him: It's a bad idea.
Me: What happened just now?
Him: I hit the bat on the woofer.
Me: And what has happened?
Him: The bat became broke.
Me, with an air of pomp: So, what have we learnt from all this?
Him, sincerely: Nothing.


Curb that curiosity!

Him: Why have you propped this toy up, but not that one?
Me: Because that one is stable, but not this one.
Him: Why is that one stable, but not this one?
Me, muttering: It's hard to explain that to you.
Him: Why is it hard to explain that to me?
Me: Look! There is an air plane there!

Universal cell phone charger - finally!

Such a stupidly obvious need, and they found a way to do it finally. I had blogged about this in early 2008 here. Now, hopefully this charger's usefulness can be expanded to other electronic devices like GPS units, music players, etc. May happen faster than we suspect, once the cell-phone supports is rolled out.

Between the Assassinations

Between the Assassinations - Aravind Adiga

In the beginning it was a dull read, but I grew to like it quite well by the end. A rather grim, gritty "novel" - more a collection of shorts based around the same settings; sort of a dark "Malgudi Days". Recommend it.

First game of Cricket with Harsha

Exciting Day! Finally, after trying for more than an year, I played the first game of cricket with my almost 3 year old son Harsha today. As usual, in our living room. Plastic bat, plastic ball and a kitchen drain mat as stumps. It was a tie, with both of us scoring 9 runs each over 4 innings. After 3 innings he was leading 5 - 0 though!

We have sort of played on the same pitch many times before, but never in a form that could be called cricket in principle. For instance, I could never introduce the concept of getting out before - he'd get upset about missing a ball and quit. Before that, there was the struggle with convincing him that he shouldn't have both the bat and ball with himself at the same time. And before that, the fact that one bat and one ball should be involved, not two bats or two balls (he has always been big on pairs).

But today, all elements came together. He was willing to bide his time before he could connect bat on ball. He understood that if the ball hit the stumps, he was out and it was my turn. (Initially, he found ball hitting the stumps too cool to realize that getting out was bad!) He ran with great zest after hitting the ball. He understood the concept of keeping score. More than anything, he was so intent on hitting the stumps when his bowling turn came, he nailed me first ball twice!

For the record, the bat is too short for me.