Growing up..

Sid has grown up! And I think I like it better..

Earlier, when he was adamant about something, he would absolutely not budge.. but now I think it has gotten slightly better… if I offer him the metaphorical carrot.  And I am finally learning the art of negotiation that they tried so hard to teach me in B-school.

After a few minutes of trying to get him to the washbasin to brush his teeth, his appa asks..

Do you want to help me get to the washbasin (which just means I am going to drag you to it..) or do you want to do it yourself?

And that DOES seem to do the trick as he zooms towards me waiting with the brush and paste!

After a few minutes of trying to get him to take bath, I tell him..

No more Johnson baby, for kids! Let us use Liril, it is green and smells so good!

And that DOES seem to do the trick as he zooms forward to the bathroom.

What I cannot get him to agree is to switch off the train videos. I have let him have his way a bit on this. But after an hour of this, I tell him, Two more and you close the laptop..

And he starts counting with his fingers. .Three more…No..No.. Four more..

Finally we agree on Five more.. and close the laptop on Ten.

And after that I let him mess around with the paint for a while, so he is distracted enough to not go back to the laptop again!

But I realize he is growing up, so having conversations with him saying not to do something works, if not immediately, at some point eventually.. Even if he continues to do the same, he does it and then calls out loud what I will react, and smiles! So, atleast the concept is explained in theory and gives me some hope to clutch on…!

Now, Sid, I cannot just wait for you to grow up and take over the cooking..

 

A milestone of sorts

Evenings are the best times with Sid. He is fresh after a good afternoon nap and is raring to go take on the whole world. Its also when he gets very restless and expects to be entertained which in other words means…get me out of these 4 walls. I hardly get the evening times with him because I’m at work during these hours. But come weekends and we manage to get some quality time. If we go out as a family, I usually prefer the Lalbagh or the Cubbon park or the Ulsoor lake, so we can walk along and Sid can run at pace with his madness. But sometimes its just Sid & me, and I deposit him on the stroller and walk around the nearby streets. These are full of potholes and one has to carefully manoeuver the stroller so the two year old doesnt fall off due to the jerks. When he was much smaller, he couldnt move much, so he would sit idly on the said vehicle and watch around with avid curiousity. But now things are different .. that when he spots some cows on the street he suddenly stands on the stroller looks backwards towards me and yells…‘amma, cow’. There is also a lot of traffic on these streets which has made it a frustrating experience for me to take him out on the stroller. I tried walking with him, but the pace was too slow to cover anything, in addition, he would wander off the street to observe something that he likes and so we would never be able to keep walking along. I tried taking him to the apartment terrace but the parapet wall is much taller than him and so he would expect me to carry him so he can observe the things around. This I can do for not more than 5-10 minutes after which I’ve to risk a back pain. Or he starts climbing on the ladder in terrace that is meant to climb upto the water tank. Once the summer began, the mosquitoes are also playing havoc! (This is the first time in Bangalore that I’m actually seeing so many mosquitoes..!) So then I take him to the small (/tiny/miniscule) play area in our apartment. Here he actually plays for sometime on the swing & the slide & the see-saw and so finally both of us manage to have some good time here. But he gets bored after 20 minutes or so..

One day, when I was running out of options and knew that it was too early to get him back into the house without some tough crying, and I was loitering around considering the next move when Sid went and stood on my scooty in the basement. We fake-rode it for sometime and I finally thought, why not actually take him a ride around. So, off we went on my two-wheeler, and it seemed like a good solution for the pot holes and the traffic and the alternative of carrying Sid around. And I could see he had plenty of fun as well, except that he scares me a bit by getting over-excited when he sees something with two horns. I dont know abt Sid, but this is definitely a milestone of sorts for me, since I can now go do some mini-groceries-shopping, etc with Sid …I know lots of moms do this..dont know why I never tried this before.. like one of my friends said, if you dont have a need you might never do it…a very small step, but a welcoming one!

 

Is he a grown-up or not?

Everyday as we leave for work, his appa gets ready to drop Sid at his granny’s place, I tell Sid a BIG bye, and also give him a hug, and tell him to give amma a mutha. I didnt even realize I used to do this until one day, when he was all set to leave and I was busy in the kitchen, he called out to me and said..‘amma, bye…amma, mutha’. Needlesss to say, I was stunned, and realized how he observes every tiny gesture of ours. Now, its become a tradition that he runs out to me wherever I’m, bombards with me a kiss attack and immediately says, ‘bye’ as though he is going to school. It’s moments like these and his stubbornness about making specific choices (hearing specific songs or doing things only in a certain manner)and his penchant for doing everything on his own, (he wants to eat by himself, insert the disk onto the player himself, etc, etc..) that make me treat him and talk to him as though he is a grown-up.

Yesterday, though, he was watching a CD on Lord Ganesha. And there was a scene where Shiva fights with a demon, and the rakshasa goes… hahaha in endhiran rajni shtyle. Suddenly, Sid started wailing inconsolably and I had to stop the CD and play something else to make him ok. Phew! He is a kid after all, still, and thank God for that!

 

Baby *

This whole weekend I’ve been trying to get Sid to spot baby animals. And also teach him what they’re called.
So, we saw a herd of cows in a street corner, and I was telling him… kutti cow, baby cow…peru..calf.
And so we went on learning about kitten, puppies and Joey
Yesterday night, we were driving around in the car, and he spotted the moon.. he was really thrilled..and went on saying.. moon, moon, white, white.. After some time, he spotted a star next to the moon, and he goes.. Baby star..
Aha! Kids!

 

It’s been some time!

I know its been some time since I wrote. Its been a busy month. To start with I had a couple of busy weeks at work, lined up with a release and then I was supposed to get some peaceful time in coimbatore for diwali. Hubby and I took a week’s vacation, and its really rare for us to plan impeccably in this manner. The vacation started out well, but then Sid fell very sick, with a bad fever and cough that lasted for a week. It scared us a lot and loads of tests for swine flu and dengue and other diseases were taken, and thankfully results turned negative. But still Sid was in a bad shape and lost a lot of visible weight since he refused to consume food for a few days. It really took a toll on me, juggling work and seeing him so sick and being helpless about it. This is the kid who doesnt sit for a moment and drives me mad with all his mischiefs, and here he was lying in a corner with drooping eyes. Really turned me into a paranoid mom for a week. And also it was painful to see him running away from me, since I was the official medicine administrator. As stealthily that I would try to give him his syrups, he would spy on me and watch for what I was carrying in my hands on a subconscious level and had his ways of knowing when the terror was around. Anyway, it is glad to have things back normal.

Its amazing to see how with each passing month his perception of the things happening around him changes so much, and also how well he is able to communicate what he wants ingeniously. His vocabulary has piled up a lot more words, as he can identify many objects around him with ease now, and also tries to guess what their color is. He has also started singing bits and pieces of songs, and counts till 20 in English and till 10 in Tamil. Whenever he see any objects in multiples, he would just start counting ..like …1, 2, 3, 4, 5.. thalani.. (counting pillows as he goes to sleep)
We also have our end of day conversations..
Amma: Chidhu, inniakku enna pannine nee?
Sid: Cow.
Amma: evlo cow pathe?
Sid: ‘dhendu cow’ - 2 cows
Amma: Vera enna pathe?
Sid: naay (dog), bear (surely imaginative I hope!)
Amma: Patti enna thandha unakku?
Sid: bichi (biscuit), kai (as in the vegetable), mei mummum (ghee rice)
Amma: thatha?
Sid: coquette (chocolate)
(And that’s how I found he has been feed chocolates so beware people, he can now tell on you! )

And this is my favorite – he calls out to me, like I am in the kitchen and he wants something..and he goes “ammmmmmmmmaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa”. That, I tell you, is a sheer moment of BLISS!

 

And the floodgates open!

Lets start with a side story: Apparently when I was a kid I didnt talk for sometime and my paranoid mom took me to Vaitheeswaran koil. There is a tradition there to drop a silver imitation of body parts like eyes, tongue, etc.. if there are any problems. So as you may have guessed my mom dropped a ‘velli nakku’ in the undiyal. And then lo! I started talking until I was nicknamed vaayadi in my school.
It so happens that history actually repeats itself it seems.

I didnt buy any SILVER TONGUE but since the temple visit a month back exactly, words have started tumbling like a roll of coins out of Sid and its been so much fun! Now is when I know that I’m no longer going to be able to track words that he speaks. He has started picking words that we speak so casually, that I know that we now have to be very careful what we talk! There is such a beauty in the mazhalai talk, I need to record that in video sometime soon before he moves on!

Another side story: I got married and in the process understood that a conversation means me talking with hubby never listening. Still one day, he surprises me with some statement that actually proves that he has listened!

So, everyday I sit with Sid and read out from the Animals board book and call them out one by one. So, even though I’ve been trying to teach Sid the wide variety of animals, and he has been listening with avid interest, I never thought it was actually sinking in, until.. a couple of weeks back, when he just rattled off most of the names from book…maybe he has been planning it as a surprise or else how can he not know any of them the previous day, and the very next day, he goes.. Woof (Wolf!) Pox (Fox!) Bear, Nion (Lion) etc..I think he got most of them right..except the complex ones like Rhino, Hippo..I could not come out of the shock for a REALLY long time, not sure if I still have.

Totally inspired by this, I went and got a BIRDS book. Now, when I came home and went through it, I realized my birds basics are not really good. Except the really well-known ones like parrot, pigeon, I was having a tough time identifying them without looking at the labels below. C’mon, crane, ostrick, stork, swan all seem to look a lot alike..and what about sparrow, nightingale, cuckoo..uhh!! And who needs to know..hornbill and tailorbird.. unless you’re doing a Ph.D on the said species. So under the excuse of teaching Sid, I learnt a few of them myself.. and he picked these up in just a couple of days!! I’m going to have to do book shopping this weekend again!!

Its exciting to see how he has now started communicating what he thinks.. like ..
when he comes home and doesnt find his dad..he goes.. appa.. car..baayee..
when he is going out with someone, he goes..babayyeee.. tata..
as soon as I give him a bath in the morning.. he goes.. paatti.. since he knows that I’m going to take him to his paatti’s place.

Has also started his own crisp version of rhymes..
baa..baa……
haav u …..wooool
yech char….

thether thether thunkin eather..
haadh a…gibberish..

The color coding has also improved beyong buuee..and parpel to green, red & yellow.

My tiny little boy is suddenly growing up toooo fast for me!!

 

My Ooty trip

Amma and appa have been going on a trip spree for sometime now. Not that I mind, but I hope that they would show some level of planning that they should as responsible parents. Amma wakes up one day in Coimbatore and starts cribbing to appa about not having gone on a trip for sometime now! She is shameless, she just came from London and she is in coimbatore, and she now wants a trip within a trip! Appa being himself, just agreed and in a couple of hours they were driving along with me to Ooty. The drive was terrible, I had to cope with a lot of nausea. To make it worse there was no music system in the car, I mean, which generation are these people in! I kept turning the knobs I could find, but turned out these did something to the cooling inside the car, and no music whatsoever came out! Finally we reached the hotel and I found that the weather in Ooty was terribly cold! What a great weather to take a one year old along! In the evening though they took me to the botanical garden and only then did I flash my smile at them.. there were so much greenery and open space all over that I just ran around like crazy making them run after me.. good they deserve this much atleast! The worst was in the middle of the night at the hotel, the power went off and it was pitch dark, how did they find this place with no backup power I wonder, I think they just fell for the scenic view from the hotel. I woke up in the middle of the night and it was totally dark but I could feel amma next to me, and also I was trying to be really brave, so I didnt cry at all. I think amma was very proud of me since she kept mentioning it to appa all the time! I think they were really scared that I was going to cry and raise hell. In this blackness of the night, amma was making some milk for me with the cellphone light and she was frustrated to find that the flask was not working, so gave me some really cold milk.. !! Uh!! I mean, how long can a kid hold his patience.. but they were in for some luck .. I just decided to gobble all the milk and doze off! I’m telling you, the next time around if these people are any close to being as irresponsible as this, they are going to discover the monster Sid!

In just 2 weeks, they again took me to a temple trip, 12 hours to and fro on train. I was excited to be in a train and kept saying ....train.. I wanted to grab some food from the family next to us, but amma’s temper was rising badly and appa did a good job of distracting me. I also saw a huge elephant in the temple, I think it winked its eyes at me I also saw an aquarium with a lot of fish inside.. amma and I counted to find 10 beautiful golden fish..I loved the thish.. I dont think amma is going to ever let me have one at home. She is more worried about the smell and maintenance than my happiness Over the years I’ll find some way to convince her. Baayyyeee. Its time for me to go to sleep, next time amma, appa behave badly I’ll snatch amma’s laptop and start typing as I did today!

 

Of changes so frequent

These days I realize Sid learns and un-learns too frequently. Just in my last post done a few days back I mentioned how he calls milk as iggu. Now, that has changed to paaa. (as in paal) I dont know what he would call it by the time I click on the Publish button here.

I also observe that he is picking up a lot more words now than before. I’m told by some family folks that if he were a girl, he’d be rattling off sentences now!
Just yesterday he has started saying paatu (asking me to play some song in tV or sing something for him), that (for cat), naaaen (which is his way of saying lion), iiiiyyy (meaning butterfly), thun( sun ). Last week, when I went to pick him up from his granny’s place, and I was outside the door chatting with her, he suddenly looks at her and says baaaye (bye, sounding more like boy). We were both so thrilled and I was not really sure if he said bye until I confirmed it the next day too when he said the same. (Oh! he is going to have a tough time with me!)

A new routine that has crept into amma’s and Sid’s diary is to sit with the play gym and for amma to point out the different animals on it. He has always been an animal lover (unlike me who never goes.. wow! that puppy is cute! ) and crazy about hearing the sounds they make. Amma is not a good mimic but she tries hard with the sounds of lion, tiger, cat, dog. etc. It helps that we have a toy that plays the sound when you choose an animal. Needless to say that’s one of his favorite toys. Our favorite sound is that of the elephant, where I make the trumpeting sound with the hand playing the role of a trunk, and love to see Sid imitating me with his hand on his forehead and saying oooonnhhhh!

It seems like he loves to sit and listen when I’m teaching him something, like, I have an alphabets book, and he hands it over to me everyday asking me to read it out for him..so I go as with A for Ant, etc.. and finally I say.. Z for and he goes beeba (zebra!) with an accomplished smile on his face. Same with an animals picture book, that I show to him everyday and point out the animals. He also drags me to the showpiece where I’ve displayed all the Gods of the house, and he wants me to point to each one of them and say their names.. so I go Rama, Krishna, etc. and he is beaming all the while! I’ve not the slightest doubt that this is God’s way of getting me to earn some puniyam in my life seeing how materialistic and unspiritual I’ve become. Its funny that he can’t say Rama, so he pronounces it as mama, mama (making me laugh so hard) I hope he would show the same kind of excitement when he has to do his homework in a few years

We have also started learning counting.. so I say, one two and he goes theeee! and I say four and he goes fiiiee …and then i’ve to utter till nine, when he goes tennnn! with his special smile knowing amma is going to applaud him now being proud of her offpsring, so as a self-pat he claps his hands

 

Re-union!

yes finally we are together, reunited in a very filmi style with me singing our family song and Sid singing it back to me with plenty of emotion and lo! we were together again
Ok, well sadly it didn’t happen that way, Sid was happily asleep when I stepped in and when he woke up after an hour, he was so dazed from his sleep and was so shocked to see me, that he didn’t know how to react. He just had this really shocked – ‘Oh so here you are, where the hell were you, and how did you turn up one fine day’ look! Anyway that was for just a few minutes and then it was bonding time again! Ha, sometimes you just realize how much you missed someone, not when you’re away but when you get back I guess. I’ve been stashing the thought away in a not-easily-retrievable corner of my mind, that it was good to come to terms with it finally, and just felt so great spending time with Sid again!
Plenty of smaller changes in him in just 2 weeks – now he addresses everyone with a name a lot more than he did before. Called me amma like a zillion times and guess who is the happiest person in the world. Same with patti and thiya thi (dhivya chithi) and thatha. But what has been getting the most attention from him is the cow, yeah the black dirty one that stands near a huge street dustbin outside our house, and gets picked by flies throughout the day, but is under the incessant attention of my animal lover. I don’t think I can even begin counting the number of times he says cow in a single day, getting one of us to stand outside the gate or through the kitchen window to get him a view of that. Yes, its official that the cow has now replaced dhayee (dog) as his favorite.
The next big change I saw in him is that the huge house has heavily contributed to him not watching TV a lot. He is more happy to explore around the house, climb up the stairs to the terrace, look outside at cow (what else!) or interact with the heavy influx of people, rather than watching rhymes. I think he still enjoys them a lot, but doesn’t insist on them like he did before, confirming my theory that he watches them only because he gets bored and has nothing better to do! But I think when we get back to our apartment, he is going to get on with his old ways, unless we find some creative ways to entertain him! What I like about this new naughty Sid avatar is that he has visibly become more active and smiling. Maybe, we were just a bunch of boring guys not knowing how to engage him well.
And also, he seems to understand what we are communicating to him much better, which I don’t think is a matter of him staying in a new environment, but more a reflection of how he is growing up!
Net-net I think there were some positives from this whole trial – the most important being that I now know that if there was a dire need for it, he could stay away from us and manage, which in the long run I think is good.

 

Chamathu Sid

God! I’m jetlagged! But still going to write this post, so cannot vouch for the sanity of content that may prevail in the following lines. Sid has been duly dropped off in coimbatore with his grandparents and aunt and I’m here in London. All my moments of worrying whether he would be able to cope up there were a waste apparently. As soon as we stepped into the house, he just recognized everyone and was all cuddly with my mom. We’ve a huge house there in Coimbatore, so he had fun just walking around the house and exploring every nook and corner. As opposed to the previous time when he would start crying the moment I stepped a few yards away from him, Sid, the adventurer, was born this time. I took him out for some shopping and when we were back, he even called my mom – patti. And he said that several times making his patti so happy. So, you know, when you bring up a baby, you have these really wonderful moments and equally terrible ones, and luckily for me, this fell into the former category. Called home today from here to check how he was doing only to know that he has been hardly searching for me at all, blissful in his own world.
It seemed like it was the adults who worried more about this whole trial, anyway thank God for this, otherwise I’d have had no peace here. I now tell my mom that the initial 1 year she invested with him has paid her off so well, since I think he is able to adjust there only because he had spent a lot of time with her during those days. When I left home on Friday, my heart just welled up in a way that it hasnt for so many years, but I ensured I didnt make a scene and also left when Sid was engrossed with his rhymes. That moment of turbulence in my heart is so indescribable.
Anyway, All izz well that ends well