Toddler Arc III : Cutely Playing Charades

"It is okay for her to eat this? I tasted it and it's a little spicy." Elle asked in concern, though the curry wasn't that spicy, it could very well be the spiciest thing little Astraea would have tasted.

"Don't worry, that's her favorite to have nowadays, and we've properly built up the spice from when we first introduced it to her and she just became happier and happier as we did," Paela explained.

They easily accepted the explanation as it as already been established in their minds that Astraea was a unique child in terms of mentality.

Taking Astraea's plate, Paela helped to scoop some white rice along and a ladle of chicken curry, with soft bits of potato and chicken that could be easily chewed by a one-year-old.

Astraea waited patiently while watching her mom fill her plate with anticipating expression, the full plate placed in front of her not long after. Instead of digging in messily like Kyris had, she instead turned to her mom and gave her a big 'thank you' before picking up her plastic spoon and fork.

She carefully scooped up a spoonful of curry and rice, bringing it to her mouth and cutely blowing on it to cool it down. After blowing on it a few times, she opened her mouth wide audible 'Aahh' and put the spoon in her mouth.

She slid the spoon out of her closed mouth and slowly started to chew with soft sounds of pleasure. This whole time everyone had been eating their own meals but were also watching the innately cute actions of Astraea, not wanting to miss a moment of it.

Astraea didn't care at all about their stares as she chowed down on her most favorite dish since she had come into this world. In her previous world, she had always loved chicken curry and would eat it at least once every week, having spurlged to go to expensive restaurants just to eat their high-quality chicken curry and some other of his favorite food.

When she first was introduced to chicken curry in this world, she was very happy and knew it would be delicious as she already knew the level of cooking her mom had. She was blown away from the flavor that small plate of curry had that surpassed most of the chicken curry he had eaten before, though it didn't beat the best one he had eaten.

Though she was a little disappointed with the level of heat present as it would have improved the dish several times over. She had amended that by asking Paela to make her curry 'hotter', not using 'spicy' as they hadn't officially taught her that word yet.

She had asked time and time again to make it 'hotter' every time she had curry and had reached the point where she thought the level of heat was perfect for her the current heat tolerance of her body.

Everyone had gotten their fill of the delicious dishes after a little under an hour and the plates and pots were nearly picked clean. 

Everyone participated in a bit of cleaning up by helping move some dishes to the sink and helping to transfer any leftovers into smaller containers. Astraea helped by carrying her personal plastic tableware and bringing it into the kitchen. 

Kyris had seen this and didn't want to be outdone by a baby and had quickly picked up his own plastic tableware and grabbing Tirana's from the table. He rushed past Astraea and held out his arms to pass it to Paela, who was arranging the dirty dishes to be washed later.

He looked over his shoulder at Astraea with a smug expression, turning to look at his father and proudly exclaim his actions. 

"Look, daddy! I helped move the dishes, and I helped Tirana with hers too!" He looked on in anticipation at his father's face, expecting an approving expression followed by his praise. 

Dennix had a bittersweet expression as he looked between his son and his friend's year-old daughter, already knowing that Kyris had done what he did so as to not be outdone by Astraea who was three years younger than him. 

Despite the motive for his actions, it was a huge improvement from his previous acts of rebellion, as nowadays he only does as he's told when using a stern tone or threatening him with punishment.

He didn't want to waste this opportunity and decided to exaggerate in his praise so that Kyris would continue with his good behavior. 

"Good job buddy! You're one heck of a gentleman that not only clear your own dishes but someone else too! Gimme a high five!" Kyris beamed at the praise and strongly slapped his small hand against the strong hand of his father, making a satisfying clap. 

Astraea had already passed her dishes to her mom when the two had completed their high five and internally rolled his eyes as she recalled what Kyris did. She didn't really care that a four-year-old was trying to compete with her not only because she was a mentally mature adult, but also because the impact of a four-year-old doing those actions compared to a cute one-year-old was like the distance between the earth and the moon.

Paela once again addressed the guests and asked them to be seated in the living area so that they could start the party games and activities. The first activity was a game that would further test the intelligence and vocabulary, charades.

Paela and Aereon had come up with dozen of words that weren't too difficult to enact such as animals, simple actions, and a few simple phrases that didn't require any signals so that the children would be able to participate as they were the main focus of the games. 

They decided to takes turns in enacting a word by going clockwise starting with Astraea's maternal grandfather, Dagen.

Dagen could only sigh at being the first to go and stood up from his seat to stand in the middle of the living area, picking a card from a stack of cards on a nearby coffee table. 

Reading what was written on the card, his face made no change and he put the card back down on the table having already thought of how to enact what he was given. 

He put his right shoulder against his nose while extending his right arm out in front of him, waving it like a snake as he made a noise similar to a trumpet, there wasn't a hint of embarrassment present in him mostly due having lived a long time and being surrounded by people he was highly familiar with. 

Everyone had known straight away what the word was but the adults refrained from speaking in order to allow one of the kids to answer. 

Kyris had only spoken the first letter of the word before Astraea shouted out the word Dagen had acted out. 

"Elephant!" The moment she finished the word, a round of praise and applause was directed at her while Kyris humped angrily from being outdone by the 'baby'. 

The next few turns had the adults enacting the content on the cards as the kids were all seated together on a small couch and were the last to go. While Astraea could have easily guessed all the words that were enacted, she decided to only guess a few while allowing Kyris and Tirana to guess as she didn't want to resentment to build up within Kyris.

Tirana had slowly shed her shyness as she was greatly enjoying the funny faces and poses the adults were making and had started softly saying the words and phrases when she had recognized them. 

It was finally the kid's turn to enact the words and phrases and Astraea was the first to go. She went up to the coffee table to get a card, picking one up and passing it to the nearest person, which was Aneya, Tirana's mother. 

Aneya was a little confused about what Astraea wanted her to do with the card, before realizing that she wanted her to tell her what was written on the card.

"...I almost forgot for a second that she is still a toddler and that she wouldn't be able to read, I was fully expecting her to read the card when she picked it up too." She admitted with a bit of embarrassment. 

Astraea's parent laughed heartily at Aneya's admittance, Kaelie and Dennix were blushing softly as they had also expected Astraea to read the card, not wanting to speak up and admit as well. 

Aneya read what was written on Astraea's card and whispered into her ear, with a slightly worried face as what she had read was not too easy to do. 

Astraea started off by holding up three fingers, then rubbing her belly with one hand and pointing into her open mouth with other. 

While Kyris and Tirana had no clue what Astraea was enacting, the other guests were a little surprised at the actions she just did as they had recognized them from playing charades before. 

Two fingers meant that there were two words they had to guess and the action after meant that the category was food. 

"You even taught her Charade signals? You might overload her brain if you keep teaching her new things this fast." Dagen asked rhetorically, he couldn't help but think that Astraea's two parents had nothing better to do other than teaching her new things as the intelligence Astraea displayed was a little hard to believe even if he was experiencing it. 

Paela and Aereon didn't answer and continued to watch Astraea with pride. 

Astraea continued on with her next set of action once she saw that the adult had understood her signals, putting up one finger to indicate that she was going to enact the first word. 

She then cupped her right hand and held it in front of her as if holding something, and made a fist with her left, moving her left hand down onto her right in a stabbing motion. She then puckered her lips into an 'o' shape while looking down at her hands. 

"Soda, Drink? No no, Drinking!" Dennix tried to guess.

Astraea shook her head, pointing to her puckered lips then pointing at her cupped hand. 

"Oh! Is it a straw? You're drinking with a straw!" Kaelie called out, sure that she had gotten it.

Astraea nodded her head, and started to do something else.

"There's more? Straw isn't the word?" Elle asked, who was also trying to guess the first word.

Astraea shook her head and started standing on her toes, reaching out one hand above her and pretending to grab something from up high.

She then brought her cupped hand to her mouth and pretended to bite something, and even pretended chewing.

"That's easy, you bit an apple didn't you?" Dagen guessed, confident in his answer.

Astraea gave a thumbs up as he had guessed right, she then held up a finger with each hand and moved them closer together.

"Put the two together? Strawapple?" Vaena asked with a bit of confusion.

"No no, apples are fruits, and there's only one straw related fruit, strawberries!" Dennix shouted out, and received two thumbs up from Astraea and big smile.

She moved on to the next word by holding up two fingers. She moved her hand above her head with her palm facing down and slowly moved it towards her head.

"Short! Wow, she's really good at this isn't she?" Kaelie was to first to guess but all of them had easily gotten it, even the two kids who kind of lost.

Astraea then did the same action indicating there was more to the word and started thinking of she would enact it, putting her finger to her cheek and tilting her head to the side.

Her face then lit up and she pointed straight towards the kitchen.

"The kitchen? The last part has somethimg to do with the kitchen?" asked Vaena.

"She's... pointing at the fridge I think, it's were we kept her cake!" Paela had guessed the word long before as she had written them, but decided to help the guests as they wouldn't know the contents of the fridge.

"Strawberry Shortcake! Brilliant! That's the word isn't it?" Dagen put together all the words and was highly impressed that Astraea was able to enact it.

"Yes! Strawberry Shortcake, Yay!" Astraea cheered, no longer needing to keep silent as the word had been guessed.

Everyone gave a big round of applause for Astraea for successfully enacting the due to its difficulty and she gave a small bow like she was an actor after the end of play.