Sanaa at 3

My niece Sanaa is now 3 years old. She has always talked up a riot, but my cousin and her daughter, currently visiting Seattle, are totally bowled over by her vocabulary and her facility with words that you wouldn't imagine a 3-year-old knowing, let alone using correctly. Also, she never replies to anyone in anything but full sentences. 

Amma: "Sanaa, please don't leave your books on the floor. Put them away if you're inished." 
Sanaa, even though she's nowhere near the books: "No, I don't want to put them away, paati. I want to read them."

Anyway, the little madam was in an unusually good mood the other day, on Skype, insisting on reading me her current favourite books/CD, something do with Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck. At one point I got distracted by something and looked away from her. When she noticed, she immediately asked: "Shyamala athai, what are you looking at?" I said: "Sorry, sweetie, I was just looking at something here." Sanaa: "Shyamala athai, don't look at something, you must look only at me because I am reading to you." 

Oh. Right. That was me told. 


Further on down the line, my mother called for Sanaa to go and have her bath. She was very unwilling as she wanted to "read" me yet another book, but eventually they came to a compromise - that she would finish reading that book, have her bath, and then come back and read some more (by which time I fully expected that she would not want to continue Skyping). 

So I told Sanaa that her paati would call me back on Skype as soon as she (Sanaa) was bathed and dressed. But, evidently worried about losing her captive audience, she said pleadingly to me: "No, Shyamala athai, please don't go away. Please wait for me in paati's laptop because I want to read another book." 

On my part, I was fairly sure that my wait would not be rewarded with more Sanaa, because she's as fickle as a weathervane and would be more than likely to say "I don't want to talk on Skype with Shyamala athai, I want to make icecream with playdoh (or something similarly fascinating)." 

Happily, though, this time, waiting for Sanaa in my mother's laptop WAS worthwhile because she returned and told me a (somewhat garbled) story of Mickey and Minnie. Skyping with Miss Vayadi isn't anything like being there with her in person, but for those who live 7000 miles away from their family, it's as good as it gets most of the time.