Our Uma is 5 years old today.

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posted by Ketan @ 4/13/2010 07:50:00 AM   0 comments

Your Uma Puma update will sadly have to wait.

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posted by Ketan @ 3/17/2010 08:55:00 AM   1 comments

The camera went off to school with Uma this morning, so pictures will have to wait until the evening. I won't break my record, though.

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posted by Ketan @ 3/04/2010 09:20:00 AM   0 comments

I signed Uma up for an afterschool garden club at her preschool. It meets every Friday, and today was the first meeting. The meetings begin with a lesson on gardening and then the kids go outside and get to work in the school's butterfly and hummingbird garden. This is the second year her school has sponsored the club, so this spring the children should see plants bloom that last years' students planted. They will plant some new plants and learn how to tend to the established ones. Today they planted seeds in cups and set them on a sunny window sill to germinate and then went outside and raked. They were still at work when Kieran and I arrived to pick up Uma. I have never seen three- and four-year-olds so intent on a task. Uma seemed to enjoy herself. She really likes poking around in Grandma's and Aaji's respective gardens, so I hope she will have just as much fun working in her school's garden.

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posted by Jessica @ 2/05/2010 09:03:00 PM   0 comments

Last night, Uma noticed that her shirt and my shirt had their buttons on opposite sides. That's pretty observant.

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posted by Ketan @ 1/31/2010 09:08:00 AM   0 comments

Back in mid-January, this site hit 3500 posts (with Uma's dentist appointment). That's a lot. It works out to 2.017 posts/day on average. the last time I counted, it was 1.98, with the last 500 posts coming at a blistering 2.27/day. I hope you can keep up.

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posted by Ketan @ 1/30/2010 11:34:00 AM   0 comments

Uma got her first ear infection ear-lier this week. She had to stay home from preschool for 3 days, as she had a cold as well. We got her diagnosed early on Wednesday, but the first course of antibiotics was unsuccessful. When I returned from work yesterday, her fever was nearing 104. We got a different kind of antibiotic, so we'll see how that goes. She's definitely feeling better, and ibuprofen has more or less erased her fever. It's been a bummer, but she's in good spirits, and we've been pretty lucky that this is her first ear infection in almost 5 years.

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posted by Ketan @ 1/23/2010 12:41:00 PM   1 comments

Yesterday Uma visited the dentist for the first time. The dentist took a complete set of x-rays of her teeth and examined and cleaned her teeth. Uma was cooperative and relaxed throughout the whole appointment. I was proud of her. The dentist said Uma's teeth were in great shape. She also commented on Uma's small jaw and the crowding of Uma's front teeth and suggested orthodontia might be in Uma's future. I was not particularly surprised. Braces are practically a tradition in my family.

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posted by Jessica @ 1/12/2010 09:09:00 PM   0 comments

Uma's been telling Kieran every minute or two, "Guess what? Today is the day I go back to school!" In spite of the repetition, he's never guessed it. She's been asking for over a week how many days until she gets to go back. I'll take that to mean she likes her preschool, not that she dislikes us.

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posted by Ketan @ 1/06/2010 07:37:00 AM   0 comments

Uma has taken to saying "Awww man" a lot whenever something doesn't go her way. It's not something I would have expected at her age.

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posted by Ketan @ 11/11/2009 10:20:00 PM   0 comments

Kieran has just learned "uh oh." I remember one time when Uma was about the same age, or a little bit older. I'd been fiddling with the car seat before we left. I went around a sharp turn, and her seat tipped partway over. She sat there, unworried, and just repeated in a calm voice "uh oh.... uh oh... uh oh..." Maybe you had to be there.

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posted by Ketan @ 11/08/2009 01:08:00 PM   0 comments

In response to one of her many nicknames, Uma told me this weekend, "I'm a person, not a puma bear."

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posted by Seema @ 10/19/2009 10:31:00 PM   0 comments

Uma had a washcloth at the table that she had used to mop up some spilled milk. I told her to get a different one to wipe her face. She said, "I'll just use my tongue," so she licked around her mouth to get it clean. Then I asked, "what about your hands?" So she started licking those, too.

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posted by Ketan @ 9/28/2009 08:27:00 AM   0 comments

Me: That makes more work for Mommy, and then she won't have time to relax and have some fun.
Uma: Mommy is a grownup so she doesn't have fun.

Sad but true.

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posted by Ketan @ 9/27/2009 05:23:00 PM   0 comments

The other day I was working in the kitchen while Uma and Kieran were playing together in the living room. I could hear them laughing, so I stuck my head around the corner to see what they were doing. I saw Uma pick up Kieran from behind and fling him at the sofa. He landed against the cushions with a thud, and then he and Uma laughed uproariously. Kieran stood up and said, "Again!" I felt bad putting a stop to their fun, but then it was almost dinner time and we didn't have time for a trip to the emergency room.

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posted by Jessica @ 9/25/2009 05:22:00 PM   0 comments

After I picked Uma up from her first day of preschool*, we were talking about what she did. At one point, Uma said, "I think I made a friend." It wasn't someone in her class, but in another class that was on the playscape at the same time. Something about this boy was appealing to Uma, so she said she just went up to him and started talking to him (apparently about her non-school friends). The cutest part? She doesn't know his name.

This is especially noteworthy because a long time ago, Uma complained that the only boys she knew were Kieran and Dominic. All the other kids she saw were girls. Now she's got No Name to add to that list.

* which was a completely unemotional experience

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posted by Ketan @ 9/10/2009 07:25:00 AM   0 comments

Today was Uma's first day of preschool. She was really excited about it. The whole drive there, she talked about how happy she was to be starting school. I thought she might be a little nervous when we arrived, but as soon as we hung up her bag and put her lunch box away, she ditched Kieran and me and darted off into her classroom. I peeked in, and she gave me a smile and started washing her hands. (It's a class rule that kids wash their hands when they arrive in the morning.) She seemed just as enthusiastic when Ketan dropped her off at home in the afternoon. She asked me if she would go to school every day and expressed dismay when I told her no.

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posted by Jessica @ 9/09/2009 09:20:00 PM   1 comments

Uma has learned to say the "th" sound where before it was always came out "f." More impressively, she's also learned her "r" sound. Of course, now she likes to say she has "thingers" on her hands.

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posted by Ketan @ 8/01/2009 08:54:00 AM   0 comments

Uma's favorite song is one in which a little girl spells out the word "happy" (currently on repeat). Uma doesn't really know how to spell yet, and I guess the singing is indistinct. She thought/thinks it is "H A pinky why." She calls it "pinky why" for short. I think I like that better too.

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posted by Ketan @ 7/18/2009 09:23:00 AM   0 comments

From the Fourth of July weekend:

Aaji: Uma, you have to eat two pieces of idli and then you can have your special treat.
Uma: Special treats are not free.

And when asked why she was up and crying at 3 am in the morning, Uma answered, "Morning doesn't come fast in this house."

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posted by Seema @ 7/11/2009 03:21:00 PM   0 comments

I forgot to mention that Friday saw umapuma.com's three thousandth post. That's 1.98 per day for the 4 years, 1 month, and 22 days to Friday. That's 53 quote posts (got a later start), 144 videos, 240 stories and other non-quote text-only posts, and 2558 posts of pictures pictures pictures (they don't add up, I know).

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posted by Ketan @ 6/08/2009 07:48:00 AM   0 comments

Uma asked me how one got sick with the chicken pox. I explained how it was transmitted from sick children, how being around or in contact with a child infected with chicken pox could cause you to get chicken pox. She asked again, so I repeated my answer in a slightly different form. She got annoyed and said (approximately), "I know you get it from sick kids, but how did the first kid get it?" She reasoned about it and inferred that it had to have started somewhere. I thought that was pretty remarkable. My ability to explain microbial evolution in four-year-old terms was not nearly as remarkable.

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posted by Ketan @ 5/24/2009 01:10:00 PM   0 comments

Uma has the idea that when she's full, her stomach bulges out and is hard. When she feels full, but it isn't, she'll be a little confused. "I'm full but my tummy isn't hard." She's very attached to the idea of the connection. For a while she would also say after dinner that her stomach was as big as mine. I need to teach her how to use a measuring tape.

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posted by Ketan @ 5/23/2009 10:09:00 PM   0 comments

Uma has changed her name to "James." Also, her husband is named Jill (female), whose mother is Alan and whose father is Mr. Lantana. Uma James has two girl babies named Izzy and Baloma. We'll keep you informed as the situation evolves.

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posted by Ketan @ 5/17/2009 12:23:00 PM   0 comments

Uma has discovered rhyming. And now puma is again her favorite stuffed animal.

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posted by Ketan @ 5/13/2009 08:12:00 AM   0 comments

Uma will now often reply to requests with a sigh, and a world-weary "All right." I don't know how she got so jaded, but in a 4-year old, it's hilarious. Of course, this probably means her cynicism at 14 will be a real doozy.

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posted by Ketan @ 5/10/2009 08:28:00 AM   0 comments

Mommy couldn't read Uma her stories tonight, so Uma asked me to read them to her in "a lady voice."

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posted by Ketan @ 5/05/2009 08:41:00 PM   0 comments

Uma has been against, for, and then indifferent to clowns. As we learned yesterday, she's now back to against. Very, very against. We attended some family fun thing yesterday. There was a petting zoo, inflatable bouncey things, rock climbing, and all manner of other activities. And clowns. There were clowns. Any time Uma caught sight of a clown, we had to turn around or make a wide detour. She'd be happy and relaxed, but would lock up in a panic and yank my hand to go the other way. Oh, and no Clifford the Big Red Dog, either.

Uncle Graham: "Look, Uma, there's Clifford the Big Red Dog."
Uma: "That's not Clifford. That's a person wearing a costume."

Even so, Clifford provoked almost as strong a reaction. She didn't want to go anywhere near him. I'll have to remember for her birthday next year. No clowns. No Clifford.

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posted by Ketan @ 5/03/2009 07:05:00 AM   0 comments

Last night Uma asked me to floss her teeth. I was a bit wary, but I did it. I was amazed how good she was. It was even easier than flossing my own teeth (partly because she only has 20, I'm sure).

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posted by Ketan @ 4/15/2009 08:09:00 AM   0 comments

Crest makes Uma cry. I guess we can't count on a lucrative endorsement deal paying her way through college.

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posted by Ketan @ 3/25/2009 09:50:00 PM   0 comments

I've had some bad luck with migraines in the last week. I've begged off a lot of the things I normally do with Uma because of the discomfort. Uma's intuition hasn't quite zeroed in on what is trouble and what is fine: "Does it hurt your head to eat spinach?"

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posted by Ketan @ 2/12/2009 08:07:00 PM   0 comments

I'm home sick today. Dr. Uma has been treating me. So far, she's checked my blood pressure, listened to my heart, looked inside my mouth, given me several shots in my forearm, trimmed some arm hair, poured medicine inside each ear, and rubbed some kind of "special medicine" on my arm. If she had eye of newt, I'm sure she'd find a use for that, too.

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posted by Ketan @ 1/26/2009 09:10:00 AM   0 comments

Uma has been sleeping without a bed rail for the last three nights and days. No accidents, knock on wood.

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posted by Ketan @ 1/08/2009 08:19:00 AM   0 comments

Uma's been looking tall lately, so I busted out ye olde tape measure. Uma is now 39.5" tall. She was 37" at her 3-year checkup back in April, so that's a noticeable gain.

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posted by Ketan @ 12/27/2008 08:44:00 AM   0 comments

Ok, so it's at 3 years and 7 months that little kids become afraid of monsters in the night, if Uma is anything to go on.

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posted by Ketan @ 11/17/2008 06:32:00 AM   0 comments

On Monday, I taught Uma how to say 'L' sounds. She's been saying them "yuh," like Pancho Veeya. She picked it up pretty quickly. Now it's just a question of practice, because she's just used to saying "yama" and "yemonade" and "yitta" (little). The word that motivated her most? Caroline.

Teaching her 'J' sounds is going to be a lot harder, I think.

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posted by Ketan @ 10/22/2008 08:46:00 AM   1 comments

Uma has discovered my Ben & Jerry's :-(

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posted by Ketan @ 10/14/2008 07:30:00 PM   0 comments

I forgot to make note of it, but on Wednesday, this weblog passed the 2500 post mark (this makes 2510). That's a rate of 1.966 posts a day over the last 3½ years. And boy are my arms tired.

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posted by Ketan @ 10/11/2008 08:22:00 AM   0 comments

I don't remember the last time Uma asked me to carry her.

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posted by Ketan @ 9/13/2008 07:18:00 AM   0 comments

At some point in the last two months, Uma's stuffed toys with tags became bestiae non gratae to her. She refused to have anything to do with animals with tags. We've been incrementally clipping them to get them back in her good graces.

Her latest food obsession is snack mixes. It can be pretzels, some kind of trail mix, or whatever, as long as it's a "mix." Maybe we should try a veggie mix.

Somehow I've gotten myself into the situation where I have to give Uma 5 "flies" when I come home from work. That involves throwing her up into the air (without completely letting go). She's not as small as she was last time I got stuck doing this. 5 times is about as many as I can manage. It's actually more than 5, because each cycle has a few half flies before she goes all the way, and the last one is actually 3. I'm just saying. I might be getting stronger.

We were a little concerned that she'd be unhappy about Kieran getting the crib, but we have yet to hear a word. It's been 2 months now since she moved into the big girl bed, and I think she's finally adapted (fingers crossed).

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posted by Ketan @ 9/06/2008 08:58:00 AM   0 comments

"I have a kwanko. Kwanko is a word for very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very, very happy."

We hear this or some variation pretty much every night.

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posted by Ketan @ 8/04/2008 08:14:00 AM   0 comments

Uma hasn't completely adapted to the big girl bed. Or, maybe she has, and our transitional tactics have become permanent. There are two main things. One is that we can't close the door to her room all the way. We have to leave it a few inches ajar.

The other, more oppressive change is that one of us has to be in the office until she falls asleep. Every few minutes she calls out, "is Daddy in the office still?" It's rather confining. It also makes it take a lot longer for her to fall asleep. It's not enough to have a monitor and come when she needs us.

There may be a silver lining. Uma loves TV, to which we naturally limit her access. If we have a show we want to watch, she's willing to let us go into the living room. I'll just have to find us a lot of TV to watch. September isn't that long from now, plus we'll have the Olympics.

Update: I got in big trouble last night because I was in the living room, but I wasn't watching a show. I had to promise that I would watch something. I had no idea Tivo would be so useful when I got my first one 8 years ago.

Also, she fell out of her bed in the middle of the night, which was quite a trick, considering we have a guard rail in place.

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posted by Ketan @ 7/20/2008 09:16:00 PM   0 comments

And this time, she didn't wake up in the middle of the night and need me to keep her company for 45 minutes. Also, yesterday she took a nap at Aaji's house for the first time, something she suggested herself. Freedom beckons. Well, as soon as we figure out how to ditch The Boy.

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posted by Ketan @ 7/05/2008 07:20:00 AM   0 comments

It may appear by Uma's clothes that I took lots of pictures on a single day and have been stretching them out for days. I assure you my integrity is unimpeachable. Instead, what we have here is, shall we say, a rather strong attachment to a small subset of Uma's wardrobe, for days on end.

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posted by Ketan @ 6/30/2008 07:14:00 AM   0 comments

I don't like Uma's imaginary friend. She's a bad girl and a bad influence.

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posted by Ketan @ 6/09/2008 11:39:00 AM   0 comments

Uma has hit the "Why?" stage. I thought it came at a much later stage, but it turns out, at least for Uma, it comes right at 3. I thought I'd be better at it, too, since I like explaining things, but the constants "whys" pretty quickly get into areas where either there is no answer, the answer is beyond her, or the question doesn't make sense. I can explain why the sky is blue. I can't explain why touching something dirty will make her hand dirty. I can't really explain why one bathroom was closer than another other.

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posted by Ketan @ 5/06/2008 07:47:00 AM   0 comments

Uma has become fixated on the alphabet, and the alphabet song in particular. Just now she yelled "A-B-C-D!" at a box that was giving her trouble. More often, she sings the song to celebrate, well, anything good that happens. It's also a lullaby she sings to herself, and a stalling tactic to delay dinner.

Also, "8-9-10" apparently translates to "Daddy, come here." I was talking to my neighbor yesterday, and she was yelling it from down to sidewalk to get me to go over to her.

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posted by Ketan @ 4/25/2008 08:02:00 AM   0 comments

Boy, Uma sure freaked out about going to the doctor yesterday. She didn't even get any shots. I don't know why she was so scared; she goes to that building a lot because she comes with me for my allergy shots, and it's been too long since her last visit for her to remember anything. Oh well. She's fine, as we figured. She's up to 37" and 29 lbs., which is the same weight as one of our dogs.

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posted by Ketan @ 4/18/2008 09:19:00 AM   0 comments

Sources say that toddlerhood ends at 3 years. "Uma Puma Early Childhood Blog" just doesn't have the same ring to it.

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posted by Ketan @ 4/17/2008 07:43:00 AM   0 comments

I just heard Uma singing to herself, "I don't want to take a nap; I'm not sleepy." Not a novel sentiment to speak, but it was sung very prettily.

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posted by Ketan @ 4/16/2008 01:15:00 PM   0 comments

Uma has been very good at recognizing Honda Accords of the same generation as ours. I figure many (if not most) kids her age would be able to recognize the number of doors and rough plan of a sedan, but this is different. Whether blue, black, green, or silver, she can always tell a 6th generation Honda Accord. She doesn't get fooled by anything else, even cars like the Hyundai Elantra that have more than a passing resemblance. Many adults can't even do that. She's also getting good at recognizing Honda CR-Vs like Grandma drives. Maybe she's a future auto journalist.

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posted by Ketan @ 4/03/2008 09:33:00 PM   1 comments

During dinner....

Uma: And for my special treat I want a Mexican.
Me: I think you mean a Mexican Tea Cake.
Uma: No Mexican Tea Cake. I want a Mexican.

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posted by Ketan @ 1/07/2008 07:36:00 PM   0 comments

Uma now knows the whole alphabet song and can sing it by herself. Except when you want her to.

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posted by Ketan @ 1/02/2008 08:30:00 AM   0 comments

Usually she announces the end of her "nap" by calling something out. Yesterday, it was "Maybe I'm awake!" This morning it was the more usual "Uh oh! I'm awake!"

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posted by Ketan @ 12/23/2007 08:01:00 AM   0 comments

Uma called me into her room yesterday while she was supposed to be taking a nap. Her problem? "I can't find the flower on my shirt." "It's on the collar." "There's it!"

In other news, I have been informed that there are 3 types of apples: regular apples, applesauce, and pineapple.

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posted by Ketan @ 11/26/2007 07:54:00 AM   0 comments

"All dem running. . One fall down."

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posted by Ketan @ 10/18/2007 07:39:00 AM   0 comments

Yesterday, we found out she was going to have a brother. She'll have to get over her disappointment.

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posted by Ketan @ 10/16/2007 07:50:00 AM   0 comments

On this, Uma's two-and-a-halfth birthday, she is almost exactly 3 feet tall. The last time I posted about it was 11 months ago, when she was 2'8", but over the summer she was around 2'10" tall. Now her feet really stick out the end of the changing table. That girl needs to get on the potty.

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posted by Ketan @ 10/13/2007 03:29:00 PM   0 comments

Uma has told us about all kinds of things she did as a baby. Last night, she told us about something she did in a previous life: "When Uma was doggy, Uma eat dog food." I didn't say it was an interesting thing.

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posted by Ketan @ 10/11/2007 08:15:00 AM   0 comments

Heard several times over the last few days: "Uma has homework to do." I don't think we've ever said the word "homework" to her.

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posted by Ketan @ 10/09/2007 08:25:00 AM   0 comments

Uma believes that the baby sections in stores are repositories for her old hand-me-downs. Every time we pass the baby clothes and toys in Target, Uma thinks it's a trip down memory lane. She will point out different items and say, "Uma wear dat shirt when Uma baby. Dat Uma's pink dress when Uma baby. Uma play with dat bear when Uma baby."

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posted by Jessica @ 9/27/2007 02:25:00 PM   0 comments

We told Uma not to wear her shoes while sitting on the furniture. She took them off and then placed them neatly next to her. On the sofa.

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posted by Ketan @ 8/23/2007 11:12:00 AM   0 comments

Today I discovered that Uma is a big fan of the Amy Winehouse song "Rehab." We were listening to the radio in the car when the song came on. I didn't feel like listening to it, so I changed the radio station. A howl of indignation arose from the backseat and Uma started yelling, "No dis song! No dis song! Other song!" Thinking that Uma didn't like the song I had switched to, I changed to a third station. Uma shouted even louder, "Other song! Other song!" I tried a few more stations before finally realizing that Uma wanted to listen to "Rehab." Sure enough, when I switched back to the first radio station, Uma quieted down. "This is the song you want?" I said to her. She replied with an affirmative grunt.

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posted by Jessica @ 8/20/2007 10:42:00 PM   2 comments

We saw a plane flying far overhead from Uma's room. She said it was going to the airport. I corrected her; it was going away from the airport. Then I asked her where she thought it was going. Her response: "Airplane going Aaji airport." Apparently American now has direct AUS-AAJ service.

It is hard for me to convey how awesome Uma's sleeping has been. After lunch today, she said, "Uma all done. Ready for nap now." If I linger too long in her room after she lies down in her crib, she says, "Daddy go out now." It's fantastic. It makes it ok that I've had to come over several times in the last week to fix her Elmo slippers, especially since she lies right back down afterward and falls asleep, often saying, "Uma sleep now."

Uma is getting the idea that there's a word for everything. She'll do some random action or pose and then ask what it's called: "What's this Uma doing?" Sometimes we have an answer, like when she spontaneously got into the Yoga pose Cobra, or when she had her arms crossed. Sometimes even she knows the answer and is just, apparently, making conversation: "you're lying down." Other times, like when she bent over with her hands on the edge of the bath tub and was alternately raising her legs... Let's just say I have a limited vocabulary.

I scolded Uma for chasing the dogs with her stroller (holding Elmo). I explained to her that I put Elmo into timeout because she was bothering Molly. Then Uma said, "and Sadie." She's an honest girl.

Uma has an inexplicable reluctance to go in the potty. She definitely has control, though; we've been giving her lots of naked time, and she's barely had any accidents (knock wood). I don't know what's scary about it; her baby dolls manage it just fine (according to Uma).

Every time we go to the hardware store, Uma has to have paint samples. That's the rule. Another rule is that Mommy isn't allowed to give Uma her oatmeal when I'm around.

Uma is getting good at the compound sentences. One morning just after waking: "Molly come into Uma's room and say 'hi Uma.'" She's started to use first person pronouns as well, so she doesn't sound so much like Bob Dole anymore. "I knocked over the tower." Or, "I need this block," as she removes a piece from the tower and destroys Daddy's vision in another way. "Uma read this book by myself."

Upon discovering that Mommy, Daddy, and Uma all have spines, she inferred that Grandma and Great-Grandma do as well.

At least once every few days, I have to sing "Happy Birthday" to Uma, blow out some imaginary candles, and then remove said imaginary candles from an imaginary cake. Uma and Elmo have the same birthday, you know.

Food that stands unsupported is the best kind. Fig Newtons and certain kinds of toast are best in that regard. Cottage cheese is, to put it mildly, disappointing.

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posted by Ketan @ 8/19/2007 08:55:00 AM   1 comments

Sometimes while cleaning Uma's teeth, my fat fingers accidentally gag her. After choking and coughing this morning after a washcloth slip, Uma said, "that was Daddy's fault."

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posted by Ketan @ 7/31/2007 09:10:00 AM   0 comments

At the grocery store, we saw a woman and her three children, one of whom was a crying infant. Uma said, "baby need Daddy." Awww...

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posted by Ketan @ 7/29/2007 08:37:00 AM   0 comments

Uma held a piece of banana to her mouth and pantomimed eating it, then said, "Uma pretend eat banana." I didn't even know she knew that word, but she knew exactly what it meant. It's a pretty tricky concept, if you think about it.

While walking to the playground, Uma jogged ahead, and then stopped, saying, "Running make Uma tired. Walking make Uma OK."

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posted by Ketan @ 7/26/2007 04:31:00 PM   1 comments

The matching topside two-year molars are coming out together, bringing Uma's complement of teeth to a full and complete 20.

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posted by Ketan @ 7/24/2007 08:54:00 AM   0 comments

This morning, Uma was getting impatient with the slow cooking of happy toast. She said, "Uma not happy." To buy some time, I gave her a vitamin. She then said, "vitamin make Uma OK."

Apparently, today is Elmo's birthday. He's eating lots of birthday cake. He also likes pasta; his pasta has olives in it. Molly and Sadie sang "Happy Birthday."

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posted by Ketan @ 7/23/2007 09:53:00 AM   0 comments

And when they're just there to get gas, well, she ain't so happy. "Mommy say Uma no go Costco. No buy stuff. Uma cry."

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posted by Ketan @ 7/12/2007 08:31:00 AM   0 comments

There's a playground that Aaji and Ajoba sometimes take Uma. As we were coming home today, we drove by it and saw that it had been torn down. I pointed that out to Uma and told her we'd have to find her another one. She sat and thought for a little while, and then she said, "those kids be sad," meaning the kids who used to go to the playground. Then she thought a little more and said, "different kids OK." That girl's thinking.

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posted by Ketan @ 7/01/2007 09:35:00 PM   1 comments

Having a two-year old means your possessions will inexplicably disappear, only to be found weeks later in unlikely places. For instance, in the last week, I found her "Happy Birthday" balloon in my dirty laundry hamper, and Mommy found her comb in a brown paper bag in the car. One of these days, I just know I'm going to find the lawnmower in the bathtub wearing a toy camel for a hat.

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posted by Ketan @ 6/30/2007 08:07:00 AM   0 comments

It's been a while since I mentioned what Uma's daily schedule is like. It's a lot different from the last time I described it, when she was 8 months old.

These days, she wakes up between 7:30 and 8:00 in the morning (my lazy bones hope for the latter). I go and get her when her murmuring of "Daddy" becomes yelling of "Daddy;" Mommy's usually out walking the dogs then. Uma and I play for a little while, she "helps" me start breakfast, and I post those lovely pictures and sometimes some pithy words. We have breakfast between 8:30 and 9. After that, Uma gets to entertain herself while we get ready for the day. Most mornings, Uma and Mommy go off to do various things. Tuesday is play group, Wednesday is the day to visit Grandma, and Thursday is music class. On Saturdays, Uma and I go to the grocery store while Mommy takes a well-deserved break. Uma usually starts her lunch between 11:30 and noon, and then has her nap shortly thereafter. She sleeps about 1½ - 2 hours.

After Uma wakes up, she gets a little snack, often a mixture of goldfish crackers (whole wheat!) and Pirate's Booty. On Tuesdays, Uma and Mommy go to the grocery store; on Wednesdays, they go visit Great-Grandma, Grandma's garden, or just hang around Grandma's house. Sunday afternoons are reserved for visiting Aaji and Ajoba.

On weekdays, I usually get home around 6:30pm, and we have a family dinner together. We adjusted our schedule a few months ago to eat with Uma instead of after she goes to bed, except on Sundays, when Uma eats dinner at Aaji and Ajoba's house. After dinner comes her bath, lately featuring lots and lots of bubbles. After Uma has splashed water out of the tub one too many times, we whisk her out, dry her off, and dress her in her jammies. Then it's time for three stories ("One more!" "No, Uma, that was the last one."), wiping Uma's dry nose repeatedly (a stalling tactic), and then it's lights out. That's usually between 8pm and 8:30pm. After that, it's blissful tranquility for 11½ hours until the next morning, when we do it all again. It's been a long time since Uma has woken up in the night, thankfully (knock wood).

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posted by Ketan @ 6/26/2007 08:23:00 AM   0 comments

Uma's pushing out a matching molar on her lower right. That makes 18 teeth. Does that mean she can vote now?

It's been over a week since Uma last nursed. Looks like she's weaned herself.

The nice thing about Uma's obsession with her videos is that it's really easy to clip her nails; she's almost sedated.

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posted by Ketan @ 6/19/2007 08:31:00 AM   0 comments

In the bath last week, the child said, "Uma drink soapy water special treat."

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posted by Ketan @ 6/14/2007 08:10:00 AM   0 comments

I was able to recover the lost pictures. Disaster averted. You can bet I'm going to be on the ball with backups from now on.

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posted by Ketan @ 5/29/2007 09:54:00 AM   2 comments

I had a hard drive failure. It's hard to say what's recoverable, but it's possible that the last 11 months are gone gone gone.

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posted by Ketan @ 5/28/2007 09:44:00 PM   2 comments

Today Uma, my mom, and I ate lunch on the roof of the Whole Foods downtown. Actually, to be more accurate, my mom and I ate lunch, and Uma people-watched while mindlessly waving around a fork with a bite of pizza on the end. Apparently a bird took this as a cue that Uma was offering up her pizza to any takers. It swooped in, pried the pizza off of Uma's fork, and flew off. Uma was remarkably nonchalant about the whole event; you would have thought that kind of thing happened to her every day.

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posted by Jessica @ 5/23/2007 03:06:00 PM   0 comments

Now that it's getting hot, when we get into the warm car, Uma asks for the "air dishin on."

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posted by Ketan @ 5/19/2007 11:49:00 AM   0 comments

Last night, shortly after Uma went to sleep, she yelled out loudly. Rather than pretend nothing happened, like we did in the scary days, we (nervously) investigated. Uma asked for water, and her room felt warm. We got her water and put her into a T-shirt instead of the long sleeves she had been wearing. Then she said, "Uma go back nap. Uma no sad. Uma OK." Things are much, much, much better now than when she was younger.

... Then there's that she's (apparently) perceptive enough to know that we were concerned she might freak out about her sleep being disturbed, and sought to reassure us.

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posted by Ketan @ 5/12/2007 08:20:00 AM   0 comments

Yesterday we took Uma to the doctor for her well-child checkup. It was pretty uneventful. There were no shots, and developmentally Uma is right on target. Here are Uma's stats:

Height: 35 in. (75th percentile)
Weight: 24 lbs. (25th percentile)
Head circumference: 47 cm (25th-50th percentile)

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posted by Jessica @ 5/03/2007 08:49:00 PM   0 comments

It was two years ago today that Uma joined us and brightened our world. I had a list of the Best of Uma Puma Year Two, but I left it at work. Feel free to suggest your favorite pictures since Uma's last birthday in the comments.

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posted by Ketan @ 4/13/2007 02:11:00 AM   0 comments

Uma loves yogurt. Her favorite is Stonyfield Farm's Yo Baby yogurt, which she's been eating happily for about a year now. Lately she's been paying a lot of attention to the packaging. Each flavor has a picture of a different baby or toddler on the carton, and Uma has developed strong preferences for some of the children. For example, she takes great delight in looking at Bridget, the baby on the blueberry yogurt carton, and will happily gobble up the yogurt inside. If I whip out the apple yogurt, however, she won't eat it because she just does not like Izabella, the little girl featured on that carton. So, to get Uma to eat the apple yogurt, I save the empty Bridget cups and spoon the apple yogurt in them. It works every time.

Another thing I've learned: food tastes better to Uma on a blue fork.

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posted by Jessica @ 4/06/2007 09:54:00 PM   1 comments

Uma can say "Mississippi."

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posted by Ketan @ 4/03/2007 08:53:00 AM   1 comments

Only two weeks after Uma got over the flu, another virus has struck. Uma has had a slight fever, cough, and stuffy nose for the past couple of days, which we attributed to teething and allergies. She was really warm this morning, so I took her to the doctor, who said it looks like Uma has a virus that has been going around. The doctor prescribed a cough suppressant/antihistimanine/decongestant and said to bring Uma back if her fever isn't gone by Monday.

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posted by Jessica @ 3/30/2007 11:53:00 AM   0 comments

It's getting harder to take pictures of Uma. She's learned that you can see pictures in the viewfinder. As soon as she sees the camera, she yells "see Uma" and runs over so she can look at pictures of herself. Usually I can snap off a shot in time, but I do end up with a lot of pictures of Uma running gleefully towards me.

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posted by Ketan @ 3/28/2007 10:01:00 AM   0 comments

No more "Ngeh." Uma learned to say her name today. Very loudly.

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posted by Ketan @ 3/22/2007 08:31:00 PM   1 comments

Earlier today I was pondering what to do with some leftover jicama. Now I know: feed it to Uma. Uma devoured about a cup of raw jicama this afternoon. At first I fed her cubes of it, but soon I couldn't keep up with her demands for "mo' nummy 'cama," so I lopped off big slices for her to nibble on. I hope this wasn't just a passing fancy. Jicama makes a good snack. It's nutritious, travels well, and isn't sticky or drippy.

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posted by Jessica @ 3/19/2007 08:25:00 PM   2 comments

The other night Ketan and I were commenting on how far Uma's sleeping habits have come. When she was a baby, we struggled to get Uma to sleep. There was the hellish period when she was between about five and ten weeks old when she screamed inconsolably from about 1 a.m. to about 3 a.m. almost every single night. Nothing would calm her--not nursing, not rocking, not bouncing, not swaddling, not being walked around, not even the magical swing. We just had to wait out her fury. As she got older, it was still a lot of work to get her to sleep--lots of patting and rocking were required and then we had to sneak out of the room without waking her lest we have to start the whole process over again. For a long time, we didn't do much in the evenings besides put Uma to bed. Gradually less work was required, but still many nights she just did not want to go bed. Sometime in the last few months, though, something just clicked for her. Her crib has, of all things, become a happy place for her. She chatters away and sings to her stuffed animals as she falls asleep. She has even begun reminding me that she has a nap coming up or that it's almost bedtime. I knew she'd really gotten it, though, a couple nights ago. She was sleeping restlessly, and I thought it was probably because she was cold. So, Ketan and I went into her room and woke her up to put another layer on her. She opened her eyes, looked at me, and she said in an exacerbated tone, "Mommy bye-bye! Ing-uh seep!" (Umese for "Mommy go away! Uma's sleeping!")

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posted by Jessica @ 3/18/2007 09:23:00 PM   1 comments

Uma is feeling a lot better today. The last two days were miserable, but she's coming out of it now. She's happy and running around again, even though she has a mild fever still and a runny nose (which she calls her "wunny nose").

Word frequency count for yesterday:

1. 10,000: "no"


2. 5,000: "wipey"


3. 100: everything else put together

Uma had the flu proper; she got the nasal swab test at the pediatrician's and everything. The Tamiflu seemed to upset her stomach, so we didn't give it to her. She wants you to remind us to get her vaccinated next year.

The flu didn't affect her learning. She's started to put 4 words together. Yesterday, in one of her few non-"no" non-"wipey" utterances she said, "go see mail truck." That and the garbage truck were among the only high points of the day. She's learned lots of other words and phrases along the way. Right now she's wobbling from one leg to the other saying "boom boom boom." I have no idea where she picked that one up.

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posted by Ketan @ 3/15/2007 09:50:00 AM   0 comments

The flu that felled me this weekend has struck Jessica as well, and appears to be claiming its third victim. Uma threw up shortly after waking and has a 99.8° temperature.

As I was bringing her over from her room this morning, I told her to be nice to Mommy because Mommy was sick. Uma said, "Ungah yike Mommy."

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posted by Ketan @ 3/13/2007 10:45:00 AM   1 comments

Summers in Texas are long and brutally hot. In the pre-Uma era, I just avoided the outdoors from June to September. However, that just doesn't fly with Uma. She loves playing outside, no matter what the temperature. So, over the past couple of months, I've been preparing for summer. To protect us from the sun and the mosquitoes, I bought a 10 foot by 10 foot screened-in canopy. To keep Uma entertained inside the canopy, I have an inflatible wading pool and a really cool sand and water table. For times when we venture outside our canopy, I got an 88-inch beach ball sprinkler for us to chase. I'd still prefer to spend our summer inside in the air conditioning, but I don't think it will be that bad from the shade of the canopy.

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posted by Jessica @ 3/11/2007 03:56:00 PM   0 comments

Uma is picking up so many words so fast now that there's no point in listing them. It seems like she says new ones every day when I come home from work.

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posted by Ketan @ 3/09/2007 07:33:00 PM   0 comments

Today my mom and I took Uma to eat in a restaurant for the first time. We decided on the Ikea restaurant because the food is served cafeteria-style, so Uma wouldn't have to wait. Uma seemed rather pleased by the whole experience. As she ate her macaroni and cheese, she kept looking around at the other diners and grinning, as if to say, "Look at me! I'm sitting at a table eating like everyone else!"

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posted by Jessica @ 2/26/2007 09:43:00 PM   0 comments

Uma has learned to say "no." She says it very clearly and knows exactly what it means.

This evening, Uma had a good time running in circles around my office chair, holding my hand so I spun around. I'm feeling pretty dizzy, but I don't think she'll let me stop.

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posted by Ketan @ 2/24/2007 07:58:00 PM   1 comments

Uma heard the word "BBC" on the radio the other day and now says it over and over and over and over and over and over and over again.

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posted by Ketan @ 2/23/2007 07:48:00 PM   0 comments