My Baby Girl Growing Up!

This is not so happy a post :( :(

Am slowly digesting the fact that my little baby girl is growing up so fast..faster than I imagined she would. No longer is she running around wearing butterfly wings, a crown on her pretty head nor is she talking about chasing rainbows for a pot of gold. But she now thinks in terms of trends like  Monster High, Bratz, and whatever those other shows are, sigh! And latest lingo of hers is beginning to include  fashion, style, romantic, date, love....Oh my gosh!!! As her Mom, it's so very hard to accept all this....sure, she doesn't really understand the real or the complete meanings of these words, but she uses them more or less in the right context, another huuuggge sigh !!!!!! [Not to take away the point I'm trying to make but just for the record, she still does very enthusiastically play all kinds of pretend games with her little brother like playing restaurant, school, opening a store or a museum, etc. So, she is still the child that she is :)].

Yesterday, my laptop was open with the Facebook page showing a pic of her trendy cousin in a cute dress. While passing by, she stopped to take a look at the pic. She took a long look, and then started typing to add a comment to the pic. I never exposed her to Facebook or the pics in there, haven't even showed her any of the compliments she gets on her pics, so I was surprised that she realized that she could add a comment to a pic. When I told this to Balu standing there, he pointed out that "Oh, it's in her DNA" :) :) ...Anyways coming back to my point, she saw the pic and commented that her cousin had a nice pose, asked her to check out ABCmouse.com (one of Shreyu's fav websites), almost signed each comment with 'Valli' as she felt too shy and did not want her cousin to know that she is the one adding comments [isn't ABCmouse.com a big giveaway ;)]...once done with all these comments, she turned around and asked me if she could say that her cuz is looking hot! I was taken aback hearing this. So, I told her that 'hot' is a taboo word, instead she can say that she is looking cool. She wanted to know why 'hot' is a taboo word, then Balu jumped in and said that the Govt sent us a list of taboo words and so if we need to know more about the taboo, we should contact them. Not exactly a great idea, but it seemed to work at that time. (We do have a list of taboo words at home, like 'stupid', 'idiot', 'shut up', etc. these words are easy to explain why we cannot use them, but how do u explain 'hot' to a little girl? Infact explaining it takes away the whole purpose of making it taboo, so I guess Balu's Govt list idea does the job better)

Here's another little anecdote at the airport a couple of days ago - waiting to be boarded, Shreyu and Shonu were lounging in the chairs, and I stood up to give myself a big stretch. While doing so, I happened to take a look at myself in the glass behind the chair she was sitting on. Not sure what gave her the idea that I was checking out myself, but out comes the comment with a pout, "Amma, don't think that you are more fashionable than me". I found it really funny and had a hearty laugh at her sense of competition, but there, again the stress on fashion & style in that brain of hers!

And then the other day when we were all in a restaurant, she suddenly popped the question, "Amma, did u & Nanna go on romantic dates?" I almost choked on what I was eating and exchanged a quick look with Balu ...he seemed composed, or maybe he was a tad surprised too ....without thinking much, I blurted out "No!!" Not taking that for an answer, she probed some more "But you & Nanna fell in love, didn't you??" I gulped and said, "Yes, but we never went out on a date, we used to just talk on the phone". Balu chuckled hard at this :)), but this seemed to satisfy her curiosity, and she accepted it to be the truth! So, like I was saying, she is still this innocent little girl but is beginning to get a much more mature grasp at this world!!

Oh btw, she is 7 !! Not even 7 and a half, just seven !!

What can I do to preserve that childish innocence in her? I feel so helpless. It's like all the factors in the world are working against me in this effort. For starters, it's those simple looking yet not so innocent fairy tales and cartoons. Every cartoon, every fairy tale has to have a Prince and a Princess, can't they all be like simple friends...no, no, no they just have to be boy friend and girl friend. And as if that is not enough, they have got to kiss !! Even the harmless looking boys cartoon, Spiderman, has Mary Jane, Peter Parker, and a kiss between them. Books, cartoons, stories, all supposedly children stuff have this concept of boyfriend/girlfriend...instead of shielding that concept from the kids, it is infact quite pronounced in all of the stories. So, despite very rarely watching Bollywood movies, she is well aware of this whole idea. Added to that, the very first book that they read in their second grade introduced this concept of some boy in the book having a crush on some girl ....I was sooooooo mad at their teacher for choosing such a book for doing their work. Why in the world would she go about choosing a book about crushes & stuff when there are like a million other books to choose from. Now, the idea of having a crush is out in the open to these little boys and girls in her classroom. And sometimes I see them giggle, joking about so & so girl having a crush on so & so boy or vice versa. !! Aaaargggh !!

It's probably got something to do with "living in this country". Or maybe not, but I suspect a teeny bit atleast. Like for example, our neighbors, who are whites, have a 4 yr old daughter. And whenever that Mom talks about her kid's play dates  she refers to the other kid as her daughter's boy friend. "Oh, she had so much fun with her boyfriend", "her boy friend came over last Saturday", etc etc. So, maybe here, that concept is not expected to be hidden from kids.

Wondering if I'm being silly holding on to that baby toddler Shreyu in my mind and failing to recognize that she is indeed growing up and all these are but natural reactions and knowledge. Sure, I wasn't this knowledgeable when I was seven but then I wasn't bombarded with information from all directions like the kids of this generation do. Heck, we did not even have a TV until I was 10, so it does not make sense to compare my idea of being 7 to a 7 year old girl of this generation. On the other hand, I should probably look at it this way -  she is smart enough to understand the world around her instead of sitting around mum!

No matter what, Shreyu Kutti will forever be my kutti, be my baby, be my darling!! That's one thing I'm very sure of :) Love you lots Baby Doll :))