Did you know...

that ducks have stopped going "quack quack quack"? Especially the Mother Duck which goes around quacking(er...sorry i meant calling) its little ones back home. Am I talking in riddles? My apologies. :) Let me explain.

Ever heard this nursery rhyme which goes thus:

Five Little Ducks went out to play
Over the hills and far away
Mother Duck called quack quack quack
Four little ducks came back.

Four little ducks went out to play...... and it goes on till no little ducks come back.

This has been Kutu's favourite all through last year. So much so that he sometimes used to change its tune to a softer melodious one and sang it as a lullaby for me to sleep. But guess whats happening these days in Kutu's Kingdom? He doesnt like the mother duck to go quacking for her little ones. No sir. She has to start singing out in english!! The other day he was arranging his crayons in his box and randomly singing out this song. I didn't pay any attention to him in the beginning of course because I was bored to death listening to five little ducks everytime he is in a mood to sing. So imagine my surprise when I heard him singing this :

Five little ducks went out to play
Over the hills and far away
Mother Duck says "where is little ducks"
Four little ducks came back
Mother duck say "where you go"
Four little ducks say "over the hills and far away".

And yes this went on untill....No little ducks came back of course!! Smothering all urges of laughter, I asked him why he changed the song. He said in a very matter of fact manner "idhu pudhiya paatu ammaa" (this is a new song amma). A "very nice kuta" kiss was given pronto.

There is one more incident that I have to record here. Couple of weeks or more ago, during one of our feeding sessions, I was singing a song to him. I think it was "odi vilayaadu paapa". Not exactly the right choice when one is expecting the brat to stay put in a place to eat. But still me being me could not think of anything else. Then our little master says "amma verae paatu paadu"(amma sing some other song). Having run out of energy to think of anything else, I asked him what he wanted me to sing. He said "amma sleeping paapa paatu". Racked my brains to recollect the song he wanted but was very unsuccessful! He said "ok...njaan paadam". So here goes his composition...his maiden composition!!

Sleeping paapa sleeping paapa
sleep sleep
morning is come
get up get up

and immediately he ran away and hid behind his cot before I could give him a tight hug. :) After that he refused to give a repeat performance no matter how much we asked. But later that night, he sang it again for his dad just before going to sleep.

Sigh....my little one has grown up enough to make up songs of his own!! and to think I was worried sick when he took as long as two and a half years to start speaking!! Now....its just a tirade of non-stop blabbering 24x7.