Turn on this side

Whenever Anirud wants his mom to turn towards him, he used to say 'Mummy, Turn on this side'. We have no clue as to where he got this phrase from and it took a while for us to understand what he was trying to say. Irrespective of whether or not this is a right usage, this is probably the longest sentence spoken by him so far. On the other day we were walking on the road when the sun was shining directly on Anirud who was seated on the buggy. He shrunk his eyes for a few minutes and suddenly cried out, 'Sun, Turn on this side'.

Fire Station visit

Our local fire station had an 'Open Day' recently. The siren of the 'Fire Engine' being a familiar one for Anirud, we ensured that he was there for the event. As the firemen were demonstrating a simulated rescue attempt from a car that met with an accident, it was not all that attractive for Anirud. He was more attracted towards the Bouncy Castle that was set up there and more towards the fire engines with ladders and all sort of stuff. His joy knew no bounds when they let him use the hose from one of the engines and splash water on some stationary object. Although he had to be helped to hold the hose as it was so heavy for him, he enjoyed every bit of the activity.

At 28 months

Anirud is able to:

- say 'Ayithudh' when asked for his name
- say 'shakka' when asked for his dad's name
- say 'shaauu' when asked for his mom's name
- call mom and dad by name suffixed with 'ma' and 'pa' respectively
- identify Rajinikanth whenever he appears on the telly
- identify certain film songs where ever they are played
- differentiate all the basic colours
- identify most of the vehicles, fruits, vegetables, domestic and wild animals
- mimic many of the animals
- pattern match logos of certain shops/brands
- pick out the book of his choice from a pile and ask for the story
- say that he wants to go to library to get a new set of books
- say quite a few nursery rhymes
- say NO to things he doesn't want
- drop litter in the bin whenever asked to
- demand that he be taken to the park to play
- tidy up the house to a certain extent
- follow instructions when he is in a mood to listen
- stand before God, keep his hands folded and pretend to pray
- gauge our mood before he smile/look serious
- communicate to a certain extent in Tamil and English
- get the instructions in Tamil and reply back in English (and viceversa)
- use fork to eat fruits
- say 'zha' as in 'pazham'
- demand for the right food item he wants (especially fruits)
- count up to 10 in Tamil and English
- identify lot of animation characters (Spiderman, Bob the Builder etc)
- pick out a particular dress to wear for the evening
- irritate us deliberately by shouting at the top of his voice
- announce that he has had an accident
- announce that he wants to wee-wee when he wants to
- scribble around with crayons

In the coming months, we expect him to:

- pedal his tricycle
- jump up and down
- pronounce 'r', 'ra', 'ri' (although we would be sorry to let go of that mazhalai)
- get potty trained
- learn the alphabets
- hold the pencil properly and draw a circle
- throw and catch a ball

Spider-o-phobia

When Anirud's mom spotted a reasonably big sized spider last week, she let out a huge scream that left Anirud both curious and frightened. Probably that was the first time he saw a spider or for that matter any insect of that size, he was somewhat convinced that they are really something to be scared about. Since then, it is the spider that would catch him if he doesn't wash his hands properly after eating, if he hides behind the closet, if he doesn't cooperate for cutting his nails etc. Thank goodness, he has not related the insect with the friendly Spiderman in his paraphernalia (He loves his Spiderman spoon. He would eat only with that). Until the time he makes out the connection, we hope to have an easy ride.

'Poochaandi' Lorry

As Anirud was getting ready to give a tough time by trying to jump out of bed during his nap time, the refuse collection truck drove into our apartment compound. The noise of the truck is much different to the other trucks and coz of that, Anirud didn't think it to be the regular truck. He was told that it is a lorry driven by a 'poochaandi' (scary man) to take away the children who don't sleep. The moment he was told, he went to bed, closed his eyes tight and fell asleep. Thanks to the invisible 'poochaandi', we have managed to structure his sleep pattern properly by putting him to bed by 9:30~10:00 pm and wake him up by 7:30 am with 1 hour nap in the afternoons.

Logos

To our surprise, Anirud has learnt to identify the logos of few brands. As soon as he spots the 'HP' logo anywhere, he immediately declares it as 'Laptop name'. We have no clue as where he could have learnt this, as we only have a DELL laptop at home. The few other logos he identifies quite easily are 'Tesco' (supermarket) and 'Shana' (food products).

Fussy Eating

As Anirud is into terrible-twos, he has developed the fussy eating behaviour. Today he listed 5-6 food items and said that he doesn't want them at all. 'Oats, cornflakes, chapathi, cheerios, dosai, noodles menaam' (vendaam, meaning don't want). Some days, he would demand for some food item, but when offered he would refuse that and ask for something else. While we are open to changing the menu, we are determined not to give into his demands all the time. One of the ideas suggested by the health visitor is to encourage him to eat at the dining table, ignore bad behaviour and encourage any good eating practices. So, new items are being prepared for him and if he doesn't consume them, it is being removed without any comment. Alternatives are not offered at all and we let him starve until the next meal time. Sometimes, that serves him right and he looks forward to the next meal hour and gobbles up what is offered. At times, it back fires as the egoistic bugger doesn't budge. The next few weeks / months would tell us who ended up victorious in this war.

Peter Pointer

Anirud has learnt almost all of the nursery rhymes by heart. If he is in the mood to sing, he would recite all the rhymes in a high tone unmindful of the location or the audience. His favourite rhymes is the one that goes on like,

Peter Pointer,
Peter Pointer,
Where are you?

Here I am,
Here I am
How do you do?

While he would say 'Peter Pointer... where are you' in a near-perfect manner, it would be funny to hear him pronounce 'Here I am'. He would say it like

Yum yum yum
yum yum yum
How do you do?

:-))

Kadala Muttaai Menum

Even when Anirud was about 9 months old, he would clearly refuse things by nodding his head sideways. Now that he is 2.4, he spells out 'Vendaam' (don't want) and 'Venum'(want) very clearly, only that he would pronounce it as 'Mendaam' and 'Menum' respectively. As he has taken a great liking for Peanut candy, whenever he thinks about it we hear him say 'Kadala Muttaai Maeenum' (I want peanut candy).

Flag

As the Indian tricolour was put up in the wall inside our home on account of Independence day, Anirud was delighted to see the flag. Only on the previous day, he was told about the flag. As the flag was shown on the TV several times that day, he kept mentioning that word throughout the day.

Slide in the park

Probably Anirud thinks that he is growing up fast. He doesn't like the slide and playing equipment in the park meant for kids of his age. He likes to play on the equipment meant for children around the age of 6-10. He has got a 'like hell I care' attitude when he is on that and doesn't bother one bit when one of the hanging bridge sways around. Sometimes his fearless attitude worries us a lot.

Faces in the Balloon

When we visited T.G.I.Friday's restaurant recently, they gave Anirud a balloon and a set of stickers (of various parts of the face) for him to stick on the balloon and make a face. As Anirud is very fond of balloons, we thought he would just love putting the stickers on. However, for some strange reason, Anirud got scared of those funny looking stickers and ran away from them whenever we took them out. It is more stranger than it sounds for Anirud is normally not scared of things that children of his age would.