Something I found from back when Somin was three:

There we were, playing carrom with my three-year-old nephew who happily put the striker wherever he wished and hit and even put quite a few of the whites and blacks in, once even climbing on to the board. I tried telling him that the striker is meant to be kept on the lines and then struck, but my dad said, "Wait, let him learn to use the striker first."
Parenting books are all fine, but no one like your parents to teach you child-rearing, just like everything else.

So Neha tells us that Mehak wanted her to get her a doctor set. Neha refused saying she could use the one they already have, Palakh's. But Mehak, adamant to get one of her own, decided she would use her nani's kharchi to do so, conveniently forgetting that she bought a doll last week with that money. When she was reminded of that, she tried convincing Neha by pledging the kharchi she would get from her nani for her coming birthday. "No, that's not possible," Neha said so they struck a deal. Little Mehak has to earn 250 points if she wants to get a set. The rules are: 
She can't cry or hit Palakh unnecessarily. A broad smile gets a point. A glass of water she drinks gets a point. Wakes up at 7 without a fuss gets a point. Rude to Palakh, minus points. Hits Palakh, minus points.

So for the past two days she has stopped crying for silly things and every time she sees Neha she gives her a big, broad smile. She troubles Palakh but immediately says sorry, which she didn't before because, as Neha says, "of her BIG ego".
At the start of Day 3, Mehak had earned 13 points. Will she get to the 250? Meanwhile, Neha is loving it. "Mehak, o Mehak," she says.

A new addition, little Mehak.

At Mehak's drawing class recently, where she was initially restless but eventually settled down, the drawing sir asked her to colour a little dog. She spent a few seconds analysing what colour to start with. She picked up a brown crayon and coloured the face.
Sir: Why brown?
Mehak: I like brown.
She then picked up a blue crayon and coloured in a little blue.
The sir asked: Why blue?
Mehak replied: Because he's in the bath.
Next came orange.
Sir asked again: Why orange?
Mehak: That's his towel sirrrr.
After that she picked up different colours and added several colourful strokes to the dog.
When the sir finally asked, "why colourful?", she replied: "Because the doggie has just played Holi."
The sir burst out laughing.

Here's a couple of new ones. When Palak's nani made Chinese for them she refused to eat it. "I want to eat in Aromas of China," she said with a pout, "not aromas of Krsna Kunj."

Another dinner. Her mum was talking to her nani and accidentally bumped into Palak. She turned around, gave her mum a dirty look and said, "Can't you see?" Then turning to her mama she pointed at her mum and said, "Blind!"

Technically I'm not her maasi but still.
On a recent trip to Pune, on being given a glass of matka water, Ishita asked how many ice cubes we had put into the water it to make it so cold. We said none, it's from the matka. The next question from the aquaguard generation kid was how did water get into the matka? I told her it had a fresh water spring. I don't know if she was convinced but even the shape of the glasses was new to her. No plain straight glasses for her, she wanted to drink from the 'lota'!
And she desperately wanted to stay back in Pune... one extra day. She tried her best to convince her dad. Then she went into the kitchen where mum was cleaning and soaking the dal. "Don't clean it," she told my mum, "just make it like that only. Everyone will fall ill and then we won't go back!"

Pal's yesterdays and tomorrows are something different. Yesterday is behind this day while tomorrow is front of this day. So if she did something yesterday: Behind of this day I went to dance class. Front of this day I want to go to activity class.

And when we were in Pune Somin got upset and said angrily that he was katti with all of us and wouldnt speak to us. The next day I get a call from Teen: "Somin has said to tell maasi I'm batti. Please tell her that otherwise she really won't talk to me all day." So much for bad moods.

Pal is starting her book You Can Convince. The book has real life experiences from her life. One of which is: Her mum was struggling with pumping air into Palakh's ball but couldn't manage so she asked Pal to call her dad to come and help. But her dad was feeling lazy to even move and kept giving lame excuses to which Pal said, "Papa you are an engineer, you can manage it." Dad ki bolti band, and the rest, as they say, is history. Pal is enjoying playing with the ball. 02/02/09