Lost and Found

Anirud went missing for some time while we were shopping at Debenhams on Boxing Day. After few heart pounding minutes, he was found trying his best pushing a trolley full of clothes. The factor that increased the tension was that the building's exit was very close to the place he was last seen and if this bugger had ventured out, it would have been a very difficult day.

Dance Baby, Dance!

The moment Anirud sees any dance movements in the telly, he starts to tap one of his legs. Although the movement makes one believe that he is trying to stamp on a pile of cowdung, what matters is Anirud does think that he is dancing.

Finger Doll

Anirud is really fond of finger doll. The one, where you draw a face on the thumb and move it appropriately, playing the ventriloquist. He would be all smiles when we do it and he wanted to do the same as well. But, the funniest thing was he was only able to move the index finger around with the drawing on the thumb.

Elephant Game

As soon anyone utters the word 'yaanai' (elephant), Anirud would soon start crawling. If ever, one of us start crawling he would be doubly happy, as he would crawl in front of us, as if he is leading the herd. Perhaps, he has observed elephants moving in herds in the telly that whenever we stop or slow down, he would reverse down and take us along.

Xmas Presents

Anirud has got couple of Xmas gifts already. One of our neighbours presented him with 2 toy cars and the organisers of his Toddler group sent him a card and a lil' story book.

Scream

These days Anirud screams a lot for everything. It is not that he is angry or anything like that. Perhaps, it is his way of expressing his excitement. But the trouble is, he gets excited very often giving out a shrill screaming noise that rattles one's ear. We are pretending to ignore that in the hope that he will give up.

Balamory

Balamory in CBeebies channel seem to be the favourite TV programme for Anirud. Not only that he hardly bats his eyelid while watching that programme, but also hums the programme's title song very often. We were even able to wake him up from sleep saying that Balamory is about to be aired.

Sleep

Gone are the days when we can put Anirud into bed, close the door to find him dose off peacefully. These days, he refuses to sleep unaccompanied, which is bothering us a lot. We are struggling really hard to get him into regular sleeping routine, but that is easier said than done.

Building Set Blocks

Anirud has got a new set of building blocks to play with. He is so happy with that and eagerly builds on various shapes. Most of the time he ends up building a single column structure until it falls off. At times, when he does manage to build something with a good base, he treats the structure as a chair and wants to sit over it.

Operating the ATM

When Anirud was allowed to wander around at the forecourt of a supermarket, he promptly went near the cash point and started operating the ATM. Even after being dragged away from the ATM, he was running towards that as the beep sound coming from the keypads of the ATM sounded very attractive for this little fella.

Make it stronger please

Anirud refuses to take milk these days. No amount of cajoling with Horlicks/Complan/Nesquick works on him. He would consider a sip if only the milk was offered with few drops of dicoction. Thank goodness, he is happy with few drops. Touchwood!

Laptop-Mouse

As soon as Anirud saw me working on a laptop without any peripherals, he ran way to fetch the mouse from a another room. He tried to plug in the mouse and when I directed him to a different socket, he brushed my hands aside and tried on his own to plug the mouse in the right socket. What surprised us more was that he immediately moved the mouse a bit and verified whether it is working fine. All of this from a 1.5 year old.... hmmmm.

Happy Bappy!

'Happy Bappy' is Anirud's version of Happy Birthday. He is talking about 25 single words, which he would utter only if he desires. Apart from Happy Bappy, 'Gud Maaminng' (Good Morning) is the other dual word he speaks.

Duckling Award

Anirud successfully completed Grade 1 of his swimming lessons this week and has been enrolled for Grade 2. During the last session, there was an assessment in which he was made to swim without any help for 3 metres. There were few other drills too, which Anirud did with ease, but he refused to blow bubbles over water, which was one of the requirements. As he was the youngest one in the batch, the examiner just ticked him through.

Charger Mad

These days, Anirud is mad about plugging the charger in to the mobile while speaking. Now that he has learnt how to do that, he is always on the look out for a charger whenever he sees a mobile. The worst bit about that is, even when one of us is talking, he tries to plug in the charger into the mobile.

Adamant

Anirud is very adamant these days. Whenever he is refused something he wants, he rolls on the floor crying. Unless he is not well, his threats are not being heeded to.

Deepavali Savouries

Among the various sweets and savouries prepared for Deepavali, Anirud took a good liking for what we call 'Ribbon Pakoda'. He was so keen over having more than his share of the savoury. Given the fact that he has never had anything of that kind so far, that was a bit amusing.

Leftie

Many a time, Anirud goes easy with his left hand rather than the right. Not always, but quite frequently. We have a feeling that he would be a left hander in many of the things.

Signal Boy

Whenever Anirud is taken out in the buggy, he likes to push the button that would cause the signal to turn green/red in the pedestrian crossing. As soon as he sees a crossing, he gets ready with his index finger out to press the button. However,the buggy will have to be lifted to enable him do that.

Aggressive

Wisdom tooth is coming up for Anirud and that causes lot of pain in his jaws and gums. It hurts to see him hit himself on his jaws or trying to bite something hard. Sometimes, he gets so frustrated with his pain that he throws his hands and legs in turn hurting anyone coming his way. Coming so soon after we thought he is mellowing down, it took a while to figure out what was wrong with him and distract him towards something he likes whenever he turned aggressive.

Pal-lavan

Anirud has got his 11th tooth now. He is a pallavan at the moment. Pal Eleven would be more apt. Wouldn't it?

Down to Earth?

Whenever Anirud hears the knock on the door, he'll rush towards the entrance if he thinks that one of us is getting home. The main door being a stained glass door, he would be able to make out the person on the other side. If it is one of us, we will kneel down and keep our face closer to the door in order for him to see us very clearly. That appears so funny to him that he also kneels down on the other side and presses his face on the door. His already flat nose looks even more flatter when he does that. Its a joy to see him display all his tooth.

Mellowed Down

After last week's brief illness, Anirud is feeling a bit more closer and attached towards us. Whenever he sits on the sofa with one of us, he leans towards us and expect us to put our arm around him. His voice has mellowed down a bit and it looks like, he has turned soft. Not that he was bad earlier, his decibel level is normally high that at times it gave an impression that he is shouting and angry. But, that has changed for the better in the recent days.

Eating

Anirud prefers to eat all by himself these days. Only that when he is offered a bowl of rice, he picks up only a grain or two and puts it into his mouth. Within about five minutes, this gets boring for him (and for everybody), he loses interest in the food and runs away. We are glad that at least he is showing inclination to eat and the hand-eye-mouth coordination is working well.

Unwell

It is that time of the year when Anirud suffers from cold, fever and breathing trouble. Hopefully, he is getting more immune.

Swimming Again

Anirud's second swimming lesson was far better than the first one. He started enjoying right from the word go. The swimming instructor and the parents in the water would sing 'Humpty Dumpty sat on the wall' in chorus. When it comes to 'Humpty Dumpty had a great fall', the children would be pulled into the water. The collective, big 'thud' sound was so thrilling for Anirud and he was all smiles & noise till the end. He dipped his head couple of times inside the water, but was generally okay. He even floated on water for few minutes without being held. More than him, we are looking forward to his Saturdays.

Books

Anirud has got a big load of books gifted by our friends. They have all got stories, pictures, rhymes and what not. Very soon, story telling session needs to be resumed for him.

Seedai

Anirud has taken a liking for 'seedai'. When a friend from Chennai brought us a pack of that savoury, Anirud popped one into his mouth and started demanding more. He sits comfortably with a bowl full of 15-20 seedais, bites, chews them one by one comfortably before returning the bowl. Sounds cool, eh?

Jo Jingles

Anirud has been enrolled in Jo Jingles classes. A group of 20 kids of Anirud's age are gathered at a place, given some little musical toys/instruments, reasonably loud music is played and these blokes are made to dance, lie down and what not. Most of the times, each of these fellas behave in their own way and looks like each one has their own favourite pranks. It is fun and Anirud enjoys that a lot, but he was seen running towards the audio system to turn it off/on. One thing that came to light was that Anirud struggled a bit to comprehend the instructions given in English. Perhaps, he should be spoken to in English as well as in Tamil.

Swimming

Anirud had his first swimming lesson last Saturday. At first, he seemed to enjoy it. Then, as the water splashed on his face he got frightened and he was crying for the next 15 minutes. Later on, he got habituated and started to enjoy it while the class wound up for the day. Anirud is the youngest one in the class, but other children seem to have been in water before as they quickly learnt to float reasonably well. The next 12 weeks should be lot of fun and hopefully Anirud will have some 'water confidence' by the end of it.

Enigma

At present three things remain as enigma for Anirud - Key fob of the car, Kitchen Knife and Iron Box, as all of these are off limits for him. Key fob of the car is not that dangerous like the other two to be kept away from him, but then the reason for his fascination towards that object is the fact that he is able to lock/unlock the car that causes the indicator lights in the car to flash. Not sure when Anirud would be succeeding in his mission of capturing those items.

Nosey

Anirud likes it when we rub our nose on his. Once done, he tries to initiate the process from his end, but funnily enough he brings his mouth to the fore front. As he has a flat nose, whenever he tries to rub his nose on ours, it is his lips that get rubbed off (with all the saliva).

Tipped Toes

For the last few weeks Anirud has been walking on tipped toes. Previously, he used to stand so in order to get a better view of the table. Funniest thing is that he manages to walk so for a reasonable distance and he is quite quick in that.

999

Like many children in UK do, Anirud dialled 999 (emergency number) from our landline last evening and quietly hung up the phone. The Police promptly rang back home to check it out. As a result, phones that could be reached by Anirud have been switched off at home.

Talking beyond Hi

Anirud has started talking a lot over the phone these days. Earlier he used to keep mum and just listen to the person at the other end, but these days he talks a lot, albeit in a language that no one can understand.

A Bad Hair Cut

For some unknown reason Anirud started crying while his hair was being cut. Any amount of cajoling didn't help and the hair dresser had to abort the attempt half way through. This is in total contrast to the previous time when he didn't move an inch that prompted the hair dresser to give a discount in the charge.

Hi!

Hi! - This was the ad slogan for Hutch mobile when they set foot in Chennai about 4 years ago. Now, this is the latest word in Anirud's vocabulary. A friend of Anirud's mom said 'hi' to him over phone and immediately he caught that word and was heard repeating that all evening.

Naughty? Nah...

Naughty is no more an apt word for Anirud. He has gone several steps beyond that in the recent weeks. He puts the vessels in the washing machine, hides the jar of the blender inside the medicine rack, switches off the laptop, pushes the chair nearer to the table so that it is convenient for him to climb on, tries to hop on from his cot to the bigger bed and the list goes on. The hunt is still on for a missing mixie(food blender) lid. Don't know what is in store in the coming days.

Habits

In the recent days, Anirud has started imitating the rest at home. Few of his favourite imitations are

1) If he gets hold of a towel, he would try to dry his hair even when it is already dry.

2) Whenever he finds a key, he immediately goes near the door and puts that into the keyhole trying to see if that fits.

3) On seeing others do the situps (thoppukaranam) before God he does that as well, but without his hands touching his ears.

4) Anirud would place his imaginary phone near his ear, tilt his head, hold the phone(?) with his shoulder and walk away talking.

Perhaps, this is how children develop new habits.

Self Eating

Anirud has been introduced to family dining, where every one would have dinner at the same time at the dining table. Of course, Anirud would be sitting on his high chair. On seeing others eat, he tried to do the same and in the process finished of half a chapathi, which is a decent quantity going by his recent food intake metrics over the last month or so. This appears to be one of the good ways of teaching him the art of self eating.

I hate YELLOW

For some reason, Anirud hates the colour book. He is fine to flip through the pages of any book and see the pictures, but he gets annoyed if the colour book is shown to him. Sometimes, he is sort of okay with the colour book as well, but there is a strict 'no no' for yellow colour. Only he would be able to explain one day as why Yellow became his nemesis all of a sudden.

Kick & You'll Get it Back

Anirud has got this bad habit of kicking people when he is in foul mood. As he hates food these days, he tends to kick the person who tries to give him food. Recently, he kicked the food bowl and the compliment was returned back in kind.

Poor Eater

Of late, Anirud has become a poor eater. It is a big struggle to make him eat any solid food, esp. carbohydrate rich rice and wheat food. For the last month or so, he is living on yoghurt and fruits.

Few more words

In the same lines of 'Yaanai', 'Karadi' (bear) turned 'Kaadi' and 'Vaali' (bucket) turned 'Aali' for Anirud.

Hee-Haw Hee-Haw

No one actually knows what Anirud means by saying this, but he has been chanting 'Hee-Haw Hee-Haw' quite regularly for several weeks now.

Filter Coffee please!

Anirud doesn't want Horlicks / Ovaltine / Complan. He has taken a liking to Filter Coffee. He gulps down more than half a tumbler of the beverage when he is offered one.

Early Learning

Anirud was standing at the window and was generally watching outside. As is common in UK, a young couple who arrived in a car stood outside the block of flats and did something that was more appropriate if it had been done indoors. Anirud saw that and when they moved a little bit away, he craned his neck to ensure that he got a good view of what they were doing. hmm.. that was a bit of early learning indeed.

Naughty

One of the easiest ways to manage Anirud was to leave the front door of the house open. He would stand right at the entrance, watching the passers by and often greeting the visitors of the other flats with a smile or cry, depending on his mood. Every few minutes he would come inside the house, check everything is okay and go back and stand at the door. Wanting to show that he is growing up, these days he has started walking out. Very often, he steps out and walks in to the verendah of the apartment. Since he knocks at our neighbour's doors, of late the front door of the house remains closed.

Cold

After several months, Anirud has caught cold. As it happens when he is not well, he dislikes food, unable to sleep properly and behaves in a cranky way. It would take a good 5-6 days to return to the normal cycle.

Trolley Mad

Anirud is so crazy about pushing the trolleys at the super markets. Whenever he is taken to super market, he insists on getting down from his buggy and wants to push the trolley. He doesn't mind whose trolley he pushes. The only trouble is that the trolleys are more than twice his height. Also, the vast space in the super markets gives him ample freedom to run around, and hoot at will that some one have to act as a steward to run behind him.

Away with the slippers

A lady was trying out new foot wear at the super market. Anirud, who was jay walking around that area found the slippers very attractive. He quickly went near her and ran away with her foot wear - one hand carrying one of her old foot wear and and the other hand carrying one of the new ones she was trying. Poor lady, she couldn't walk anywhere and it took a couple of minutes to rescue her things from him.

Yaayaii

'Yaayaii' is how Anirud pronounces 'yaanai' (elephant). This is the next sensible word he has spoken after 'amma'. The only other word in his vocabulary is 'baba' as in 'Ba ba Black sheep'.

Lo!

Having watched people talk over the phone, Anirud is mad over the phones. Apart from insisting on talking with anyone over the phone, he picks up anything (be it a wire, a toy, computer mouse etc.), gets that near his ear, tilts his head and says '..lo' (to be understood as Hello) assuming that piece of thing is a telephone.

Books Collection

Anirud's first book was the one that the local library gave when he became a member. He loved the colourful, thick paged book with huge pictures of babies doing various things. Now, he has got several books on varied topics like colours, shapes, objects and so on. Every now and then, he picks up one of those books, flips across the pages - something he loves doing, gives a quick look at the pictures and moves on. Anirud is yet to be taught that books shouldn't be stamped upon while walking.

Sixth Tooth

Thanks to the Whole Milk, which has become a part of Anirud's diet in the last few weeks Anirud has got his sixth tooth now. Whey heyyy!!

Climb & Fall

Anirud has learnt to climb up the sofa on his own. Learning to climb the sofa also means that he would stand on the sofa. Standing on the sofa also means that he would stand in the edge. Standing in the edge also means that he would have a free fall. But, a free fall doesn't mean that he has got his lessons right. The climb-stand-fall-cry cycle continues every day.

Talk

Trr.. la la lalala... va va.. mmmm.... prrrrrr prrrrrrrr ulliioiii ulliioiii ulliioiii.... hhhhhmmmmmmmm.. hhhhhmmmmmm.... amma.. ammaa.. baa.. prrrrr.... ulliioiii ulliioiii.. vaaa vaaaaa...

5th one.. the quicker one!

Anirud has now got his 5th tooth. Getting the fifth tooth is a little quick for his age (13 mths). Before that came out, he literally bit anything that was in his reach - be it a table or books or fingers.

Never walks...

Anirud has stopped walking these days. Most of the time he runs, often pushing himself a bit more than he could. When made to walk on the grass, he stumbles but nevertheless balances himself and carries on, which is a treat to watch.

Bat & Ball

Anirud indicated in the best possible way that he needs a bat & ball. When he could get his hands on the spatula, he was treating that as a bat and found an orange for the ball to play with. Very soon, he would be getting a new bat & ball to fiddle around.

Nemesis

A half foot robot that Anirud got as his birthday gift is his current nemesis now. He do likes the robot, but only when it is muted. When it is switched on, the sound scares him a little bit that he keeps away from the path on which the robot walks or better still he pushes that away so that the robot doesn't come anywhere near him. Funny to watch him push the toy & run away from it.

Hide & Seek

Hide & Seek seems to be Anirud's favourite game. Even when he is just about to doze off, one could pull him into the game and he'll enjoy it like anything. This little blighter gets cleverer with each game that these days, he skips all the easy hideouts and checks out the more tougher ones. He even makes a quick check through the door gap before deciding whether or not to enter a particular room.

Ayushomam

Anirud's ayushomam went on well at Mahalakshmi Narayanar Temple in London on Sunday, 7th May. Throughout the homam, Anirud sat quietly without being cranky of any sorts and he is indeed happy with the presents he got that day.

Growing up phase

Anirud has started learning to be adamant these days. When he doesn't get what he wants, he rolls on the floor crying. Though he soon learns that he is not being given into, he continues to do it when he doesn't gets his next thing on his wishlist. Sure sign that he is growing up.

Happy Birthday Sonny!

Toys R His

Anirud got a car load of new toys over the weekend. He was taken to 'Toys R Us' - one of the biggest toy shops in the world and was given a free hand to choose whatever that pleases him. He is expected to spend the next few weeks in actively using & dismantling them - not necessarily in that order.

Paint it Red

One careless moment and Anirud showed what he is capable of. While everyone was busy with something else, somehow he brought down the cup that had kumkum and spread that in the carpet in no time. After more than an hour of cleaning with all possible cleaning materials, there is still a red patch in the carpet that stands as a reminder of what this little fella did that evening.

Anirud's Waterloo

Anirud exposed his big weakness on the other day. When his own voice, which was recorded over the voice recorder in the mobile phone was played to him, he got scared and started crying. He has heard that quite a few times before, but of late he is scared over that. Probably he thinks that someone is hiding inside the phone. :-)

One small step for the mankind, a giant leap for Anirud

Yes.. Anirud started walking yesterday. He walked 4 or 5 steps on his own before sitting down. It is just a matter of time before he starts walking faster & eventually start running. Another little milestone for this little bugger.

What would you do with a TV remote?

Use it to operate the TV? Anirud found a good use for that. He hits the TV screen with the remote and he is very much fond of the noise that gets generated when the metal meets the glass. He has been strictly warned not to do that, but it remains a question as when he would resume this expensive habit.

Caught red-handed

Anirud is fast becoming a big time prankster. From switching on the washing machine to turning off/on the gas knobs, from touching the hot iron to pulling the wires/cables, he is doing everything he can that it becomes a big risk to leave him alone even for a few minutes. For a few days now, he has been fiddling with the VCR. Today, his curiosity got the better of him and he put his hand in the slot where one would insert the cassette. But he couldn't get the hand out and started crying aloud as it got stuck. Within minutes of his hand being pulled out, he started towards another thing lying around.

Big enough to shop

Anirud busy shopping at Tesco.

Haircut

Anirud had his first haircut over the weekend. Traditionally, in our home we used to tonsure the head at the temple of our family deity. Since we are miles away from India at present and also because Anirud's hair is growing at lengths often touching his nose, we decided to cut the hair now. We knew that it is not feasible to do it at a barber's shop, so we cut it ourselves at our home. It was quite a drama as one of us held him close restricting his movements, while the other cut the hair with utmost care. He tried his best to free himself and be part of the action, but we didn't give up until we were satisfied. In the end, we feel that we have done a good job and he looks extra smart than how he was. We have preserved the strands of hair to offer it at the temple, whenever we go there.

First Friend

Anirud was taken to the lullaby club for the first time last week. As is his usual wont, he started crying on meeting the strangers. When few babies arrived at the venue, they too started weeping on seeing him cry. In due course, he settled down and enjoyed the innumerable toys that were there. He even warmed up to another baby girl towards the end. His first friend happens to be a girl.. hmm.