Toddler Psychology

I wonder what goes in their teeny-weeny brains. When my daughter was in the womb, my friends and family requested me to listen to good music. They asked me to continue listening after she was born. I’m not sure what impact the music has had on her because I listen to random music – anything that I feel like. I somehow feel she is very kind and humble. Not sure again if that’s how all the toddlers are. The other day Sakura and I were in a close by market when she saw a man using crutches. A person like me is scared to watch a man holding crutches because it reminds me of pain. But Sakura, as her usual self, shouted ‘dada’ and then said a ‘hiii’. He smiled and waved a ‘hiii’ back when she told me ‘daaada’ by pointing fingers at him. Then she looked at him again when he had barely walked a few meters and said ‘tata dada’ (tata means bye and she uses these 2 words interchangeably).

A month or so back I bought her 5 pim-poms (candies) and she started to have one while we were returning from the market. When we reached our place, as soon as she saw the caretaker’s granddaughter in the parking area, she asked me to share one with her which I dutifully did. A few weeks later I was playing with her in the parking area as part of my everyday routine and Sakura saw that the granddaughter was holding a candy as well as a packet of chips in her hand. The girl first held the 2 items close to herself indicating her intention not to share and quickly found her way to hide the eatables under the sheet of the bed she was sitting on. Sakura looked at me trying to say something but did not. Instead she asked the girl to come play with her in a few words. I knew Sakura had connected the dots but she made me realize that it doesn’t matter. What people give back to you doesn’t matter. One needs to do things without expectations of something in return.

Things are not that rosy or enlightening all the time, though. She is quite passionate about teddies, to the extent that she is not willing to share the ones that are not even hers to begin with. We found that out recently while visiting a family gathering and she tried to monopolize a huge teddy at that house in the presence of (at least) two other kids. And witnessing such incidents – some sweet, some heart-warming, and some not so much – I have come to the end of 2019. So far, it has been a wonderful, wonderful experience watching Sakura grow. God bless her!