Breast feeding for Aryaa stopped when she was around one and half years old. We didn’t do anything, Sobita was ready to breast feed her for next several months, but it was Aryaa herself who wasn’t interested. We continued formula for a little longer.
There was not much to worry as Aryaa was already eating other foods too from much earlier than this. But as most of the children she was choosy. She used to hate most of the vegetables but with ‘crazy’ naming, she started happily eating some of them. And gradually, there is not much problem left in the case of vegetables though sometimes we still have to devise ‘crazy’ names, ‘crazy’ shapes or ‘crazy’ stories for a few of them.
Milk (normal one, not the formula) is one thing that she didn’t like from the beginning. She preferred bottle feeding for whatever little she drank. But after she turned around 2 and half, her teachers suggested us to make Aryaa drink from cup in home as they were teaching that in Kindergarten too.
But it was very hard to make her drink milk from cup. There was no problem for water or juice, seemed she didn’t like milk’s scent. If cold, she would drink some but she hated the warmed milk.
Her kindergarten had UNDOUKAI (sports meet) in October. She got a ‘gold’ medal, her friends too got, all the children get it:).
“Yesterday, Aryaa-chyan got medal---“ she said during breakfast the next day.
“Yes, yes! Do you know why you got it?”
“Aryaa-chyan ran very fast--, so.”
“Yes! But why can Aryaa-chayn run so fast?”
“Because Aryaa-chyan is so GENKI (healthy)---.”
“But why is Aryaa-chyan so GENKI?”
“Because Aryaa-chyan eats well, eats a lot---“
“Yes, but not only that. Aryaa-chyan drinks a lot of milk too. Milk makes Aryaa-chyan’s feet stronger---“, I found an ‘opening’ here.
“Yes, yes----“, she ‘agreed’.
“Aryaa-chyan will drink today too, will finish this soon, won’t you?” I asked her.
“PAPA OOEN SITE NE----(Papa, please cheer for me), She was now ready to drink milk.
“OK”, so I started “GAMBARE ARYAA-CHYAN! ARYAA-CHYAN NO KATI NI NARU YO---(Keep it up Aryaa-chyan, Keep it up! Aryaa-chyan will win-----)“ and clapping!
“SHASIN MO TOTTE (Please take some photographs too)”, was her new ‘order’ in the middle.
“OK. Click! Click!!----“ I make hand gestures, I now turned into a sports photographer too:)
“See, Aryaa-chyan drank all.” The cup was already empty.
While done like this, she started drinking milk before sleeping too.
So I am doing this role of a ‘crazy’ supporter and shouting “GAMBARAE ARYAA-CHYAN----“, not only once, twice a day since last two months.
And in the meantime, I am working as a sports photographer too:)
