Neelu Myra Dance Party

Super Neelu

Neelu loves dressing up as a super hero! He has a costume rack in his playroom. Every day he is dressed up as some super hero or the other.

Cutest Things Neelu has said in Q2 2014

Every where we travel, the first question Neel asks is -- if we are in United States. I love the fact that you have no sense of geography at the moment. We recently went to Las Vegas. We drove at night, so when you woke up the next day, you found yourself in Las Vegas.

When I showed the view from our room. You asked -- are we in America? Poor little cutie Neelu. You have traveled so much, that you do not have a sense of whether you are in the country or out of it.

The other thing you always bring up is meetings. According to you, when you grow up, we will all have meetings in Disneyland. When daddy asked, who would pay for the tickets, Neelu always says, "I will".

Neelu we have recorded this for the future to remind you of the promises you made to us.

Cutest things Neelu has said in Q1 2014

1) We always tease Neelu by saying that "he's my huband".
2) Instead of weapons, Neel always says Webuns.
3) In a car ride on saturday in mid march, you turn to us and say " I am fosuckig". You meant to say -- " I am focusing". Mummy, daddy and didi had such a laugh that for the next hour we kept teasing you saying -- "Neelu fosuck on your webuns"/
4) Daddy recently got laid off. This was the first time you had encountered the word laid off. After daddy explained to you what being laid off means, you turned around to us and said " I want to get laid off from school".
5) My darling neelu -- you bring so much joy to our lives. You are kind! You are funny! You are sweet!
6) Celia says you are the Senator of Canyon School! You are cute! You solve everyone's problems.. and all the kids love you :). 

Neelu at 4 years old

My darling darling Neelu…. How fast time has flown. You are 4 years old now.. and every bit as cute and darling as the day you were born. At four you are:

1. You are a friend’s friend.. you get along with everyone. Regardless of how old a person is, you instantly become friends with everyone. I hope you continue to cherish this quality about you.
2. You love to go pouty.. when you get upset about something,  You get all huffy and pouty. Mommy or daddy have to cajole you when you get upset… we mostly try to tickle you and within seconds you are laughing on the floor and all is forgotten.
3. You are becoming an adventurous eater now.. your favorite things to eat:

Dal, roti, puri, idli, broccoli, cauliflower, green beans, sushi (tamago and crab rolls), dumplings, rice and beans, cream of mushroom soup, rasgullas, laddos, sheera, mangoes, bananas, strawberries, blueberries, papaya, nuts, chicken, tofu…

4. The little girls love you because you always seem to know the newest girl songs or about the latest gizmos girls like thanks to your big sister. This is a quality that will benefit you when you grow up. Lately you have become a rockstar at school as you sing the songs from Frozen with all the girls.

5. You make up all sorts of crazy songs now. Even when you don’t want to do something you will turn that into a song and sing it.

6. You love to keep your room clean…. All I have to do is ask you to clean your room and viola you do it.

7. Your favorite activities nowadays include: baseball, razoring, biking (you got a new bike for your 4^th birthday), and dressing up as super heros.

8.  You love your superheros  -- bheem is your favorite but you have the entire collection of super hero costumes – spider man, superman, avengers, power rangers, and iron man.

9.  You still sneak into mommy and daddy’s bed at night….getting you to sleep is a chore.. it takes a lot of time and requires either mommy or daddy to snuggle with you. With Ms. Anna all it  takes is for her to say – “Neel night night time and you go to sleep in your bed without any issues”.

10. You have this crazy infectious smile that takes but two seconds to extract from the grumpiest moments.

Mommy, Daddy and didi love you soooooooo much!!!!!

On the occasion of Neel's 4th birthday

Neel is growing and growing and is now up to my bellybutton in height. He loves playing with the iPad-I still have a video of when he was a year old, trying to figure out the unlock-swipe. He is extremely cute and very very naughty. It is impossible to get him to do anything that he does not want to do. He absolutely locks down, will not not not do it, no matter how much you cajole or threaten him. You have to make him want to do it, and only then will he do it.

Neel plays well with everyone, he is a very loving child. He does not hold grudges. His most frequent playmates outside of school are Guy and Sienna. Sienna seems to be his girlfriend: they play everywhere and even hold hands and kiss. Neel is also very affectionate with Arianne. It is so cute to see them interact.

We didn't think that Neel would like to play with Legos-until he did start playing with them. His favorite toys are all boy stuff-bow & arrow, swords, etc. He loves to play with swords and pretend-fight. We got him a bow and arrow set for Christmas and he spent countless hours trying to figure out how to shoot it (it is designed for 8 year olds). 

Neel loves to go to play areas like My Gym, the playground and Chuck E Cheese. At CEC he really wants to play the driving games, but he is so little he cannot reach the pedals. So one of us has to jam down on the accelerator while he spins the wheel round and round. 

Neel is very friendly, and will try to strike up conversations with complete strangers. He will tell them his name, ask them what they do, tell them what games he likes to play, etc.Then he will throw in a random fact or two, using his four year old communication skills.

Neel is not as fond of dogs as Simone is, he likes to see them and thinks they are cute, but he shies away from them. Only after coaxing does he pet them. 

Neel has started to like Simone's hamster but will not hold it like Simone does. He asked for his own hamster but did not persist in it, like Simone did. Simone never let us up until she got one.

Neel got into a fight with his Dad and then play-stabbed his Dad with the plastic sword. In response his Dad said he would not speak with him anymore. Recriminations and shouting followed. Then Neel apologized, saying he was cranky. 

On a recent evening Neel said that he wanted to play baseball. Dad said no, you have to eat dinner first. Neel then said, Dad I hate you. Dad said I love you, even if you hate me. Neel then said, Dad, I want you to stop loving me. Dad then said, No, Neel, I can never stop loving you. Neel then just grumbled and walked away.

Neel loves to ride his new bike. It has logos of Neel's favorite cartoon, Jake and the Neverland Pirates. However, the bike's training wheels mean Neel does not get a chance to learn how to balance. So, we try to make him ride his cheap-o Walmart scooter ($13 and worth not a penny more) in an attempt to get him to learn to balance. However, he hates to ride the scooter if it is *not* his idea, and it definitely takes second fiddle to riding his bike. Given that, he looks very cute pushing the scooter along. He is slowly getting better on his balance.

Neel loves to play baseball. We have tied a wiffleball to a string that hanges from a pipe, and he swings at it nonstop. Or, I will pitch every possible ball we have to him: tennis balls, squish balls, plastic balls, etc. He has a decent hit rate, and it is improving every day. He is happiest when he is swinging his bat around.

Neel is an absolute Netflix addict. If you haven't heard from him for a while it means he has taken the iPad, started up Netflix and gone somewhere to watch cartoons. You have to go hunt him down, and there his Ivy League level negotiation skills start up. He is allowed 30 minutes of Netflix, so he says he is watching his 30 minutes of Netflix. Then, he says he just wants to finish the current episode. If you forget to check which episode he is on, then he will just go to another episode, which naturally he just wants to finish as well. And to take the iPad away from results in a full scale crying and screaming jag, unless you absolutely positively get him to agree at which he will stop, in which case he will not cry, unless he is cranky/tired/sleepy, in which case he will tantrum no matter what. So the solution is not log out of Netflix on all iPads, so that he cannot automatically start to watch anything.

Neel loves to have books read to him, and we take every opportunity to read to him. His current favorite book is 'The Rhyming Rabbit'. He likes it so much that he can recite most of it by memory. He dislikes the Dora series, though, and Simone is too old for them, so out go 10 of those books. We also read other books to him, and read those same books to him again and again so that he can get familiar with words and phrases. He also dislikes Fancy Nancy. He loves reading the Chhota Bheem cartoon books. 

We work with Neel a lot on Math- we take out the Abacus and have him count out beads, and have him do simple additions and subtractions, just for fun. He is very happy to do them as long as we make it a game for him. We tried to get him to do Tabtor but we couldn't, because he cannot read yet. So only Simone gets to do Tabtor, and she is running through it. In addition to the abacus, Neel does an exercise for Kumon without being really prompted. He likes to write, and does the work. But you have to talk him into it. He also does his piano really well, if you can talk him into it. One of the nicest things is seeing him work his little fingers over the keyboard. 

For the January 2014 recital Neel will play "I am King" solo, and we are really looking forward to it.

Neel knows his mother's phone number, and he sometimes plays a game where he blocks a doorway and you have to tell him a password. He is replicating what he sees on the iPad and the iPhone. You tell him the code, and he lets you pass.

Neel loves to get piggyback rides, as does Simone. However, Dad's back is not so strong, so the kids ride on it while Dad four-hands his way up the stairs, and they call it "Broken Down Daddy Express". Everytime Neel is around the stairs, and he sees Daddy coming up, he runs and grabs onto Daddy's leg to get a piggyback ride. Dad loves it.

Neel loves to cuddle with his Mom, and cuddling with Neel can be highly addictive because he is so cute and pleasant. But he has weird sleeping habits. He does not like to sleep under the covers, and he always sleeps opposite to everyone else, so he will sleep on your legs, sideways, everywhere, except normally. You have to be careful with Neel, because he can fall off the bed-Simone does not. So you have to put him on the inside, or if not, you have put your arm across from him.

Neel is now out of his crib. It is a toddler bed, but he will not sleep in it anymore. In fact, he uses it as an 'apparatus' to launch himself onto the bed, like a gigantic spring. Simone and Neel use the crib as a playtoy, to climb on, to jump from, etc. etc. At night, if we put him in the crib, there is a 100% guarantee he will wake up at some point and climb into his parents bed.

Neel can eat really fast when he wants to-but won't eat otherwise. He gulped down-literally gulped down-two slices of pizza yesterday at a party but absolutely refused to eat the Tom Yum Gai soup his Mom so lovingly made. Mom was mad. Neel came back later and asked for cereal. Dad said to go ask Mom but Neel said no, Mom would get angry. Instead Neel ate a lot of cashews. 

Neel and Simone can play well together sometime, so well that it brings tears to our eyes. two days ago, instead of watching TV, they played Legos for over two hours. They create elaborate fantasy lands-well Simone does, but neel is happy to play along. That is what we hope for in the long run-that they cooperate and enjoy life together.