Now when I called home to check how N was doing, I could hear my lil N saying in the background "Mien aapki shikayat karoongi mamma se" (I will complaint about you to mamma). So I wanted to humor her and asked our maid to hand her the phone.
N comes on the phone and says: "Mamma aap didi ko daant lagana kyonki didi ne ghich pich kiya meri plate mien" (Ghich pich kiya in our house is a kiddish way of saying made a mess)
Me: "Ghich pich kiya? Kya ghich pich kiya?"
N: "Poori dal meri plate mien dal di aur katori gira di."
Me: "Oh...ok. Mien daant lagaungi ok?"
N: "Aur aap mujhe fish nahin dete ho. Didi deti hai. Lekin aap daant lagana. Fish mien dandi tha."
Me thoroughly amused by now at the endearing racket these 2 were creating at home. But also being my cautious mommy self now and instructing the maid to make sure she cleans the bones before feeding the child (choking hazard and what not).
Sigh...when did my lil N grow up so much! She went from speaking pure English to a lot of Hindi now and can even translate between the 2 skillfully. She speaks to us in English and if she wants to convey the same thing to her maid or her grandparents, she turns to them and translates for them in Hindi :-) And she never really likes to have proper conversations on the phone except for days like today. Just these small snippets of talks with her on the phone make my working day go by a lot easier at times.
