Pooh-pooh

On her 3rd birthday, Raaga got a book titled Madeline as a present from her preschool teacher. It is a book about a family of twelve kids. Raaga loves the book for Madeline, the outlier of the twelve. She sees the adventure and outrageous antics in Madeline; her favorite part being the casual "Pooh-pooh" Madeline says to the mighty tiger in the zoo. I love the book more for the eleven that are identical.  I see the unity and orderliness in those eleven; my favorite part being "In two straight lines they broke their bread and brushed their teeth and went to bed". This book reminds me of the family of our neighborhood tailor in Hyderabad we used to get our dresses stitched from. It was a large family of mom, dad, numerous kids ranging from infant to 20yr old, one or possibly both grandparents. The entire family often gathered around a huge bowl of dinner and just dug in. They all always appeared to be so happy, so content. That image promptly flashes in my head every time I read Madeline to Raaga.

Alas our little family of three is a little bit different from Madeline's eleven siblings or my tailor's family. We buy three different kinds of milk: Low fat, Fat free, Soy. For dinner this Friday, we bought three flavors of pizza: Cheese, Paneer, Chicken. Three different hygienists from the same dentist's office worked on our teeth this past week during our family's spring cleaning spree. Raaga's hygienist told her how even big and independent girls like her should let mom or dad help floss. My hygienist gently reminded me of the need for regular flossing. I wasn't immediately aware of the feedback from the third hygienist. But ever since the triple appointments, in a straight line, the three of us stand, flossing, night after night! 

And I just found out what the third hygienist said- "I am going to get more aggressive on you next time if you don't floss". Our tiger got a "Pooh-pooh"!