End of School Term

Anirud's school term came to an end last week. On the last day of the term, there was a nativity play at school and every kid had a part in that. I was unfortunate to miss the event, but could understand when his mom said that it was fun to watch the 3 & 4 year olds who were supposed to do a part - waving at their parents, talking to one another, scratching their head etc. Anirud's role in that 50 minute play was that of an elephant and like many kids, he was also scanning the audience from the stage trying to spot us. It is a shame that our camera didn't work at that time and camcorder was left behind at home.

After the play, there was a small event with Father Santa making an appearance for giving out christmas gifts. Anirud also had the joy of posting two dozen greeting cards for his pals at the special post box put up at school. They also bid farewell to couple of children, who were leaving the nursery to the primary school. In all, it was a happy beginning of three weeks of holidays.

Anirud waiting with the other kids to be called by Santa

Friends

In the recent times, Anirud seem to be quite appreciative of his 'friends' and at times he seem to miss them too. A week into his term break and few days after our visit to our friend's place, he makes regular references to the fellow fellow children at school and other kids whom het met elsewhere. Apart from Varsha-kka & Advika, whom he has been meeting in regular intervals for years now, other names like Parsa, Megan, Priya, Varun, Architha, Aparna find a mention every now and then.

We were shopping at a supermarket some day, when Anirud pointed to a boy model in some advert and claimed that he is his friend from school. He still refuses to believe that a child - whom we think is very close to him at the nursery, will not be around for the next term.

Easel

Anirud scribbling on his new black board.

Vaccination

Anirud had his dose of vaccination this morning. To double his agony, it was two injections this time. The nurse apologised to him before, during and after the ceremony for hurting his soft and tender skin. One drop of tear for two injections was the outcome. It was over and he was more than happy to get out of the place. In the evening, his mom was explaining him what vaccinations are all about, that it will kill germs and what not. After a while she asked 'Ippo sollu, oosi potta enna aagum?' (Now tell me, what will happen after you are given that injection?). Anirud gave her a matter of fact reply - 'Valikkum' (It will hurt). :)

The Big Party

An Indian get-together was held recently that we planned to attend. For some inane reasons, that was being referred to as party. When Anirud was told that we will be attending a party, he assumed that to be a 'birthday party', as that is the only one he is aware of and kept pestering us who the birthday boy / girl is. At last, he did realise what that is when he attended the event and even christened it as 'Big Party', based on the number of people who attended it.

That 'Big Party' did have events for children and Anirud participated in 'dumb charade', which was meant for his age group. As none of the children actually caught the concept of dumb charade, it was amusing to see children blink and show some funny shapes to their team mates. In case of Anirud, he and another child slight elder to him by few years came forwarded to enact their word. The word that was given to them was 'house' and the organisers helped them to show the shape of the roof. Seeing the other kid doing some shapes, Anirud just repeated whatever he did and funnily enough shouted 'It is a triangle'. :) As the time ran out, the show ended. Nevertheless, it was great on the part of the organisers to have put their thinking caps on in organising something of this nature.


Anirud (in blue t-shirt) enacting the word 'house' to his bemused team mates.

Flower Pots

Recently we bought couple of indoor floral plants, one of which is called 'nandhiya vattai' in Tamil. When we bought it, there were quite a lot of buds in the shrub. We pointed all of those to Anirud, teaching him to water the plants and explained that the buds will bloom into flowers later. All through the day, he kept checking the plants every five minutes and when it didn't bloomed as expected, he started demanding explanations. Perhaps, this is what poet Vairamuthu meant by 'Naan nattadhum rojaa indre pookkanum' (நான் நட்டதும் ரோஜா இன்றே பூக்கணும்). :))


A day later 'nandhiya vattai' smiled much to everyone's happiness.

Kadodhgajan

Guess who is Anirud's latest favourite character? It is the mythological 'Kadodhgajan'. Few weeks ago, Anirud watched the classical Tamil movie 'Maya Bazaar' and particularly took a liking to the famous song 'Kalyaana Samayal Saadham..'. Since then, he has watched that song few hundred times already and has now become a die hard fan of 'Kadodhgajan'. He will be all excited upon seeing that character make his appearance on the screen. Perhaps, he thinks it is really possible for the 'real' Kadodhgan to make all the laddus fly into his mouth. On the other day, I showed him a plate filled with some food item and in a flash of a second, replaced it with an empty plate claiming that I ate them all like in that song. One should have seen his face to realise how awe-struck he was. In the end, it took a while to convince him of the truth, though he had a piece of advice for me - 'appa, andha madhiri ellam saapidadhe. appuram, neeyum raakshasana maariduve' (Daddy, don't eat like that. If you do, you will turn into a demon). :P

Pink is for Girls

A shirt that Anirud's grandparents had sent him for Deepavali happened to have shades of pink colour. He immediately refused it saying that it looks girlish to wear that. On the other day, we were at a shop and were looking at a mat that was in pink. Anirud could not even digest the fact that we were looking at something that only girls would use. He doesn't specifically say that pink is for girls, but in general keeps that colour away saying that it is meant for girls. Wonder if someone told him all these or he picked it up through hearsay.

Health Visitor

Anirud's health visitor for the last 3+ years is moving out of our locality and there will be a new person as her replacement. Basically, Health Visitors are qualified nurses with further specialised training and are experienced in child health and health promotion. Here in UK, they will help the parents deal with any of the behavioural issues with the child. I am not sure if other parents consult the health visitor, as frequently as we have been doing. In case of Anirud, she was the one who adviced us on many things including but not limited to - sleep issues, eating habits, attention seeking tantrums etc. Several times in the past, we have called her up with some silly question or other and she would always have some suggestion that would work well on Anirud. Even at times, when she used to tell what we know already - it will be reassuring to hear from the horse's mouth.

She made a home-visit to our place recently and Anirud signed up a 'Thank you' card for her. Thanks Nikki for all you have done.

Deepavali - 2008

Deepavali was celebrated with a reasonable bit of fanfare this year. Last year, we were in India for the occasion and Anirud was not that very happy with the noise of the crackers. But this time around, he was excited on that count and enjoyed lighting quite a few sparklers on his own. With the presence of few other children of his age from our apartment block, Deepavali eve turned out to be a fun night. He even pestered me to let him try the crackers, but that has to wait for few more years.

New School

Since October this year, Anirud has been enrolled at a new school who follow the montessori way of teaching. Seems that he is enjoying it quite a bit there, as sometimes he wants to stay back and refuses to come home. Unlike the nursery he was into before, this is more like a proper school. Hence, he needs to be there at the appointed time, for which he needs to wake up by a certain time, which requires that he should be going to bed at night at a set time. So, his sleeping pattern is all set and that is certainly not the only good thing to happen.

Perhaps, the foremost thing they have taught at school is to stay organised. These days, as soon as he is back home from anywhere, he immediately removes his shoes, places it on the shoe rack, rushes in to the room and changes his clothes - all of these without being prompted. More often than not, he puts away his toys in the right place once he is done. Of course, there are some odd days when he doesn't do any of these, but honestly we don't have any regrets about that, as long as that doesn't become a habit. :)

Three weeks into his school, they had a 'half term' break as well. He enjoyed every moment of that by waking up late (around 9-ish) and staying till late. Thankfully, he got back to his routine fairly quickly as soon as the school reopened.

Typical Brit

Anirud is fast turning out to be a typical Brit. One of the first things he talks about every morning is the weather. "Wow.. What a beautiful sunny day" / "Oh no! It is a windy day", he exclaims/frowns as if the weather means something to him. Well, in a way the weather means a lot to him as that is the one which decides whether or not Anirud will play in the school garden. With him picking up the accents and slangs from school, very soon we are gonna have a tough time following his words.

Undiyal (Piggy Bank)

On the auspicious Vijayadasami day, we got a undiyal (piggy bank) for Anirud. We drew up the rule that he will be rewarded with few coins before going to bed, if he had been behaving well. Any other special accomplishments would also be rewarded. Like it always happens, we promptly forgot the rules that we drew up. One month on, he seldom remembers the piggy bank, but whenever he does never forgets to mention that he is gonna buy a 'blue cycle' with the money he saves.

Art work

Oh yeah... that's a Robot.

"Ben hates me"

One day as I picked Anirud from the nursery, I noticed that he was very upset. His key worker said that he was alright until about 10 minutes back and suddenly became very serious and moody. Upon questioning him, he revealed that his playmate had said 'I hate you' for some reason and that seems to have put him off. With a very sad tone, he mumbled "Ben hates me Appa". While comforting him, I was surprised as how sensitive he is. Some day, he might realise that there are things not worth worrying about and this is one among them.

Mighty Mind

One of our relatives gifted Anirud a game called 'Mighty Mind' and what a wonderful gift that was. It comes with about 30 different shapes (squares, triangles etc) which can be assembled into various different figures (house, animal etc). We taught Anirud the basics of the game and he has learnt it to play by himself with very little help from us. He is sure gonna get the next level of the game - 'Mighty Mind Super Challenger' very soon.

Image Courtesy: Baby Jireh

Overnight Success Story

For the last few weeks, Anirud has been without nappies during the night and gladly, there had been no accidents. Touchwood! Barring the time when we go for long drives, he is nappy free during the day as well - which is one another giant step towards 'big boyhood'. :)) Perhaps, this is not the kind of post that he may want to see in this blog when he grows up big, but this is the kind of news that gives us big relief.

மழலை (Mazhalai)

அது சூடூவா இருக்குமா - அது சூடா இருக்குமா? (Is it hot)

நான் பயமூமுருத்தினேன் - நான் பயமுறுத்தினேன் (I scared him/her)

Laptop Addiction

In the recent few days, Anirud has become addicted towards laptop. As he has learnt to use the mouse very well, he is happy clicking at whatever link that comes his way. That is fine if he does that during his allocated time of 15 minutes a day, when we let him wander around the CBeebies website. Most of the times, he returns the laptop after the allocated 15 minutes - if we show him the clock and say that his time will be up when the big hand of the clock reaches a certain number. But whenever we use the laptop, he sits besides us and tries to click the mouse on something or other. Sometimes, he just grabs our hand to prevent us getting anywhere near the keyboard / mouse and is particularly unhappy if ever we pull him up for doing such stuff. The sooner we address this issue, the better it will be for all three of us.

Vegetable Farm

Vegetable Farm

A week ago, we visited a vegetable farm nearby. What a nice experience it was for Anirud, that he got to pick apples from the trees, dig out carrots & beetroots from the earth with a spade, pick loads of beans from the creepers, rasp/black berries from the plants etc. More importantly, he would have probably learnt that carrots and beans don't get 'created by magic' in plastic covers at Sainbury's or Tesco. It was funny when he said, "En pa dirty carrots ellam vaangare?" (Why are you buying the dirty carrots?).

Cars

Do all the boys like cars? Probably yes. Like most boys, Anirud is crazy about cars and very often takes a vow to drive a car when he becomes a 'big boy'. Once when he was asked 'Which school will you be going to?', he replied 'Driving School'. Funnily enough, ever since he saw someone in our neighbourhood getting into a driving school car, he is pestering us to look for a Kid's Driving School. Well, he is presented with the kid's version of so many things from books to chairs to meals to what not. So, he expects a Driving School for kids as well.

That one apart, his specialisation on logos have diversified into cars as well, as he easily picks out - Nissan, Honda, Volkswagon, Toyota, Ford, Renault, Vauxhall cars by their logo even from a distance.

Flags and Capitals

One interesting bit of learning for Anirud due to the Olympic games was the awareness he gained about various different countries and their flags. These days he instantly recognises the flags of China, India, UK, Switzerland, France, USA and few others. We thought of extending this a bit further and told him about the capital cities of the above countries. He was fine with most of them, but when it came to 'Washington DC' he was a bit intrigued with 'washing', but nevertheless carried on. When we moved on to the next capital, his imagination started to run amok. Before we could tell the name of the next capital, he was like 'Dishwasher DC', 'Fridge-ton DC' - replacing 'washing' with what ever appliance name he could imagine.

Olympics

Thanks to the Beijing Olympics 2008, Anirud now has got a fair idea of what different games are about. His favourites are track cycling, boxing and swimming. Apart from the above, he claims to like 'bulti' (gymnastics), hockey, running (athletics) and diving. Through out the duration of the games, he woke up with thoughts on olympics and watched the telly to his heart's content. We promised to take him to the next Olympics (London 2012), but the problem was in making him understand that he has to wait for 4 years, as he doesn't know to think in terms of time.

Love Film

One fine day, as we were walking past Blockbuster, Anirud asked me to rent the movie 'Shrek'. I said to him that we can get that movie through Lovefilm (an online movie rental service we have subscribed to) and asked him to remind about that when we get home. I expected him to forget about it and rightly so, he didn't bother about Shrek for some time. Few hours later, Anirud went near the laptop that was not only left unlocked, but also had an Internet Explorer window open. He moved the mouse to the address bar and typed some character in random (it happened to be 'L'), pressed the down arrow and hit 'Enter'. To his joy, the website that loaded in front of him was lovefilm.com.

From that point, he started to take control. With the combination of mouse clicks and scroll buttons, he navigated around the site, reached the page where the teaser for 'Shrek' was displayed and just stopped short of reserving / ordering the movie. Leaving aside the initial excitement after he landed on the said website, not for a moment he hesitated while navigating around. Such was his confidence that it appeared that he knew everything about the process like the back of his palm.

Lovefilm.com is a harmless site. At best or worst, he could only reserve a movie. But this is a gentle reminder for us to 'sign out' properly from all the sites, especially the ones like Amazon, which has got features like 'single click ordering'.

Dialogue

(Apologies to those who can't read Thamizh.)

அப்பா: நீ ரொம்ப ஸ்வீட்டா?

அநிருத்: இல்ல, காரம். நான் தான் மிக்ஸர்.. :-))

Small Business Laptop

When we were discussing about the best place to buy our laptop, Anirud turned around and said, "Appa, Small business laptop vaangi paaru. Adhu nanna irukkum" (Dad, get a Small Business Laptop from Dell. That will be good). I vividly remember the day - several weeks ago, when I was telling my wife about the Small Business Laptop available from Dell and Anirud's focus was on his new toy. Seems that he grabbed that bit of info and used it at the right time. Though he doesn't know the meaning of 'business', we were pleasantly shocked at the way he put all of that together at the appropriate time.

Useless

One day Anirud was asking like 'appa, Tesco poy useless vaangalaama?' ('Shall we buy USELESS from Tesco?'). We were utterly confused on what he was talking about that it took a while to figure it out.

Few minutes before this, upon seeing Anirud playing with an used up plastic item, his mom asked me what that was, to which I replied, 'Oh, that is useless. Let him play with it'. He caught on to the word and thought that it is the name of the item.

Scooter

We have got a scooter for Anirud. Scooter is a small two-wheeled vehicle operated by foot and not the one that is commonly referred to in India. The one he has got is a slightly advanced version - that it has got only 2 wheels and at times Anirud finds it a bit difficult to balance. On the otherhand, the scooters owned by few other children in the neighbourhood have an extra wheel in the front for balance. As per Murphy's law, Anirud likes their scooter and the other kids like his'. The next step in this direction will be a 14" bike, which we have planned to get him by Spring 2009.

Whipsnade Zoo

Anirud was taken to Whipsnade Zoo and he enjoyed every bit of his time there. Even when we were few miles to the zoo, he could hardly contain his excitement and was like 'Idhu daan Zoo-aa? Zoo vandhaacha?' (Is that the zoo? have we arrived there?). Apart from seeing the animals that included Lion, Bear, Giraffe, Wolf, Chimpanzee, Rhino, Hippo, Cheetah etc in close quarters, he got to go on a zoo safari in a small steam train. As a fan of trains, he was looking forward to that ever since he heard the hoot of the engine upon entering the zoo. He was visibly pleased when he threw carrots at the bear although one of the bears got hit by the carrot thrown by him. He enjoyed watching the birds and sometimes egged me on to photograph them. An eagle was looking away in its cage and it was cute when he said 'Hey Eagle, look at me, look at me please'. Anirud's only disappointment was that the Asian Tiger never showed up near the viewing enclosure.

Big Boy - Small Boy

Anirud has got a theory that when small becomes big, big will become small. Going by that logic, when he grows up to be a big boy, we (his mom and I) will become small girl/boy, as the case may be. Based on the above theory, his questions are like 'Which school will you be attending when you become a little boy?', 'What kind of toys would you play with?' etc.

Flowers and Wedding

Perhaps taking cue from the movies, Anirud has somehow started relating flowers with wedding. On the other day, as we were walking past the aisle containing flowers at Tesco, he went on like "Appa, inga flowers paaru. Kalyanam section vandhuduthu" (Look at the flowers.. We have come to the wedding section). :)

Drawing

What do you think these are?
First one is supposed to be the Sun and the next one is a smiley.

Quote

"Appa, namma electrical shop-ku poy electricity vaangindu varalaama?" (Shall we go to the Electrical shop and get some electricity?)

Aliases

Mirote - Remote
Om Mano Narayana - Om Namo Narayana

Thamizh Yaanai

Recently, I pointed to a picture of an elephant and asked Anirud if he had seen that animal. I expected him to say yes as he had seen an elephant during our visit to Trichy last year. But this bugger said a firm 'no'. When I reminded him of the place where he had seen the elephant, he was like "adhu thamizh yaanai pa. naan elephant paathadhu illa" (That was a Tamil yaanai(elephant), but I haven't seen the elephant). After observing him for a while, I think he prefixes the word 'Thamizh' to anything related to India, like 'Thamizh letter', 'Thamizh TV' etc.

Formal Wear

I was getting ready for work wearing a jeans and a t-shirt. Anirud was astonished on seeing me going to work in an informal attire. With a stunned look on his face, "Appa, indha dress pottundu pogaadhe. enakku pudikkalai. office dress pottundu po" (Don't go out in this attire. I don't like it. Wear the office dress (formal wear) while going out).

Perhaps, he was taught in nursery about various types of dresses etc that he always makes it a point to wear a different attire when he returns home.

New House

We have moved to a slightly more comfortable, spacious apartment within the same town. Anirud is enjoying well at our new home as it has got plenty of room to run around. As the house is bare without any furnitures, it looks bigger than it is. One concern is that, the house has got woodden floor and if anyone walks hard let alone run, our neighbours might get disturbed. Apart from a good view of a small river, a railway track runs closer to our home, which means Anirud gets to watch the trains on a regular basis along with ducks and swans that are in the river.

Further, the new apartment block has got quite a few kids of Anirud's age. As some of them go to the same nursery as Anirud, it is a good opportunity for him to have friends near the house.

Face Painting

For years we have been asking Anirud if he wants his face to be pained and he normally keeps away from that. This time around, when we had the Carnival at our town over the weekend, he chose himself to be painted as 'Tiger' and that too an 'Orange' one. He enjoyed every bit of the day by getting into all the possible rides, apart from being a tiger.

Later in the day, when we asked him where the tiger had gone, he said that it had gone down the wash basin (where he washed down all the paint).

Concern

For some reason or other, Anirud feels very bad about vomiting. About six months back, when we were at our friend's place Anirud puked out. Although he was cleaned, given a new dress to wear, the place cleared of the mess - he kept feeling bad and uttering 'sorry' innumerable times. We comforted him saying that it is normal for anyone to vomit and it is just a minor accident after all. However, from time to time he will remember that episode and feel very bad. His tone will turn apologetic and he will promise that he wouldn't do it again. Few days ago, Anirud remembered the incident even as we were just passing through the town where our friends live and went on with his usual apologies. He has seen people vomiting out in front of him and on those occasions, we have tried to convey the message as sensitively as we could that this is common among everyone to puke out. Seems that somewhere deep in his mind, he is concerned that he has done something wrong. Perhaps, we should take out a different approach and get that out of his mind.

Cycling

Anirud cycling around the house on his trike.

Lawn Mower

Guess what Anirud thought on seeing the gardener using the lawn mower? That he was cleaning the grass with a vaccum cleaner.
:-)

Day Off at London

Anirud pushing the (empty) buggy at Green Park, London.

Last Saturday could have been a sort of dream day for Anirud in many ways. First, he got to travel in the tube, then he had a field day in Central London - by running around in Green Park, travelling in a bus, watching Big Ben in awe. To top it all, he got to see the London Eye from close quarters and returned home in the tube. In all, a very great day for him.

Car Horn

On the other day, I was telling Anirud about why and how people sound the horn in their cars. When I asked him if he understood what I was saying, he replied with a perplexed face keeping one of his fingers on his head pointing upwards, "naan horn paathirukken pa.. head mela one madhiri irukkume" (I have seen the horn. It will be on the head, like the numeral one). Apparently, he mistook it to be the horn that many animals have on their head. Further, he thought that the radio antenna on top of our car to be its horn.

Back to Nursery

Anirud is back at the nursery since the beginning of this week, after a break of 3 weeks. He is reportedly very happy and talkative. The only thing he is unable to digest is that he is being made to wear shorts (instead of full-length trousers), which according to him, is not an attire to be worn outdoors (not a 'bye-bye' dress, but only an 'aathukku pottukara' dress).

Where are we now?

Normally Anirud makes a mental note of the roads we frequently drive on. Upon entering a particular road, he would normally guess the destination we are headed to. Many a times, he would even tell the locality / town we are driving through. When we were driving through a new locality, Anirud's mom asked him, "where are we now?", with the idea of cornering him. Pat came the reply, "We are on the road".

Wii Board

Wii Fit is the latest toy that we have got for ourselves. The gadget comprises of a console attached to the TV and a Wii Fit Balance Board. As we work out on the board trying to shed those extra pounds, Anirud steps in trying to make use of the board at the same time. Normally, we give him some time to use the board all by himself, but as is the case with most kids of his age, he would want to use the board only when we need it. After a bit of thought, we took out the weighing scale (the one found in a physician's clinic) and told Anirud that it is a Wii Fit Balance Board for Babies. As Anirud is fond of anything that is meant for kids, he is more than happy with the weighing scale and letting us work out in peace. One never know when that bugger will find out the truth.

Aththai Visit

Anirud's aththai is on a two week visit to UK at present. In the days leading to her visit, Anirud was all excited about meeting her and was telling us about visiting the airport to collect her etc. On the day of her arrival, he woke up 1.5 hours before his usual time and was eagerly looked for her arrival. Not disappointing him, aththai brought loads of goodies that included a school bag, black slate, toys etc. After letting her settle down, he is royally driving her nuts by asking her to play with him all the time.

Upon observing us explaining to her about various things she might find new in this country, Anirud thinks that she is one person who doesn't seem to know a thing (sort of 'oor naattaan' in Tamil). It is funny to watch him explain her about all the little things - right from how to eat dosai (dosai-ya pichchu pichchu saapidanum) to how to switch on the telly.

Little Worries

Sometimes, Anirud worries like a grown-up and all of his worries would be on trivial things that actually has nothing to do with him. Couple of days ago, he woke up crying early in the morning. Upon being comforted he said, "Tesco-la vaangina new basmati rice-a use pannadhe" (don't use the new basmati rice bought at Tesco). After being assured that we won't be using it, he went back to sleep peacefully. Probably, he had a bad dream or something that made him worry about the Basmatic rice, of all the things in the world.

Another one of his recent worries is that I might go to work wearing a veshti (dhoti). He calmed down only after seeing me wear formal clothes.

Kadalamuttai Chocolate

What the rest of the world calls 'Snickers', Anirud calls it 'Kadalamuttai Chocolate'.

Lets buy a baby

When we were entering Tesco Superstore, a lady was coming out with her bags of purchase on one hand and with a two month old baby on the other. Upon seeing this, Anirud said without a moment's hesitation: "nammalum Tesco poy, indha maadhiri oru paapa vaangalaam pa" (Lets buy a baby like this from Tesco).

Best Behaviour

During the past week when Anirud's mom was not well and needed complete bed rest, Anirud packed up all his naughtiness and behaved in the best possible way that one could expect of a three year old. As his mom was suffering from conjunctivitis as well, it was important that she was quarantined. When told about that, he left the room quietly closing the door, confined himself to the lounge for most part of the day watching the telly at a low volume and even answered the phone couple of times. Needless to mention that we were mighty pleased with him on the hour of need. This post is to make sure that we not only make note of his crankiness, but also his good behaviour.

Puzzles

Anirud is very fond of jigsaw puzzles. He has crossed the stage of solving 6, 12 and 18 piece puzzles, but certainly not ready for a 500 piece one - which is sure to rob his interest if introduced to him at this stage. I am not sure if it is right or wrong - he doesn't solve the puzzles by looking at the picture. He does it by trial and error by trying to to fit in various pieces of the jigsaw and eventually gets it right. Very soon, we shall increase the challenge level in such a way that his interest level on this remains intact.

Question

Anirud had a poser for his mom today, "mummy, unakku kalyanam aayiduthaa?" (Mummy, have you got married?). Apparently, he had listened to her asking the same question to someone else. :)

Thittaadhe please!

The latest buzzword for Anirud these days seem to be 'enna thittaadhe please' (don't scold me, please). When he does something naughty, he could foresee our reaction and as soon as we open our mouth, he would say the above with a sorry look on his face. This, despite the fact that in the recent days we are extra cautious about not scolding or frightening him for his naughtiness unless he does something that is totally unacceptable.

Make it clear

As a big fan of Tesco, Anirud always has a question or two about the superstore. We were driving past a Tesco Express (smaller version of Tesco) last week, he asked me if that shop has got a parking space. As I was engrossed on something else, I mumbled a weak 'hmmmm'. Obviously annoyed at my answer, Anirud said loudly: 'appa, clear aa sollu. parking space irukaa, illaya. yes or no sollu' (Appa, say it clearly. Is there a parking space or not? Say, yes or no'.

Health

Anirud's health has been a cause of concern for us now. Since the dawn of 2008, he has been having some issue or other. First, it was the cold and cough that went on for more than 3 months. Now, he is suffering from fever for the last three days. We are aware that these are very much part of the growing-up phase for kids, but it hurts a lot to see an active kid confining himself to bed. His weight is also not satisfactory. Once he gets out of this feverishness, we will focus on his health a lot more than we do now and do whatever we can to make him a healthier kid. When he is down with fever, he will be confined to the sofa/bed. However, even if his battery gets charged a little bit, he is back to his own active naughty self grilling us with loads of questions, which is good.

Growing Big

Today morning, Anirud wore my shoes and proudly declared "Appa, naan big boy aayitten" (I have become a big boy!). hmmmm... that seems to be his idea of being a big boy.

Kids' Tree

Anirud likes the things that has got a 'kids' tag attached to it. Kids' Pizza, Kids' Dosa, Kids Bed, Kids' Cycle etc are his favourites. He is of the view (and rightly so) that they are being prepared with brats like him in mind and so, they are very special for him. Needless to say, whenever possible we do make use of this to push down our agenda. When he is in a playful mood and doesn't want to take food, any mention of 'Kids Meals' or 'Kids Dosa' will automatically bring him to the dining table. Apart from the above, sometimes he does assume that anything smaller in size are meant for kids. On the other day we were shopping at IKEA, Anirud suddenly pointed out to something and said 'Indha shop la kids tree irukku pa. Enakku onnu vaangi thariya?' (This shop sells Kids' Trees. Will you get one for me?). The thing that he was referring to was a Plant. :)

Bits and Pieces

Anirud seems to be getting better in playing back the happenings at his nursery. In the last few days, he has been telling us - how he played a monster inside the little house at the garden, how he frightened the little girl who happened to be his class mate, how he was made to sit alone as he did something naughty etc. In the recent weeks, we could very well see that Anirud's command over the language has improved a lot. He is responding nicely with a heavily accented 'yeah' or 'no' when thrown some questions. Most of the time, he is singing one nursery rhyme or other.

At the same time, he has become a bit moody of late. He feels shy when we have someone at home or meet them elsewhere. It takes a bit of time for him to warm up and start mumbling few words. He wasn't like that before. Hopefully, he will wither away this newly acquired trait.

We got a trike for Anirud last year. However, we are guilty of not giving him enough opportunity to practice it properly so that he could pedal all by himself. Perhaps, we should spend more time outdoors and let him pedal around with confidence. It is already time to get him a 12" bike.

Three Years

Anirud turns three today.
In the last few months, he has learnt to:

- Pronounce his name (including the surname) very clearly
- Initiate and continue multiple-sentence conversations
- Identify his and his mom's name where ever they are written (through pattern matching)
- Jump up and down
- Memorise quite a lot of nursery rhymes
- Identify few countries in the World Map
- Wear his costumes without any help
- Hold the pen / pencil properly
- Draw a circle, line etc
- Apologise when he does something wrong
- Use the pull-ups without that many accidents
- Converse with his teachers and mates in English

... and a lot more.

Many more happy returns of the day, love.

Unlike last year, Anirud's third birthday was a low key affair this time. We took him to the temple on Saturday and that was that.

In the bed, with the shoes :-)

Anirud is being read a moral / behavioural story every evening. There is one story where a little boy called 'Pepper' will come home from a party and refuse to change his costume or remove his shoes. He would want to sleep in the bed with his shoes. After a while and loads of advice from his mom, Pepper would turn a new leaf. The story end with Pepper's mom telling him that special costumes are meant only for special occasions and are not meant to be used at home, just like how one would not use tooth paste for polishing the shoes.

Whenever Anirud is in a mood to test our nerves, he will announce with a wink that he will be going to bed with his shoes on. Whenever he wears a party wear, he will say that he will be sleeping in that costume and look at our face for any reaction. The wicked smile on his face at that time will give away that he is kidding and the key here is to ignore him or smile away staying cool. If ever he thinks that we might admonish him, I guess he will try to test the limits by actually doing what he says.

Items on the Menu

Looking at a menu card from an Italian restaurant, Anirud appeared to be reading out something. When asked for what he was saying, he ran down the fingers over the individual items and went on like

Rasam Saadham
Thachchi mamm
Poondu podi saadham
Naarthangaai
..
..

Imitation

As Anirud's mom was lying on the bed immersed in a novel, this brat climbed on there lay next to her, picked up another novel and supposedly started 'reading 'it. :-)) It is a fact that Anirud loves books. Not a day passes without his time on books, but Jeffrey Archer does sound like a lot for his age. Don't you agree?

Favourite Underpants

One can expect to have a favourite dress, favourite food, favourite toy, favourite place.. but how about favourite underpants? Seems that Anirud has got one such. One day he was like 'ennoda favourite jetti nananju pochu pa' meaning 'my favourite underpants has got wet'. :)) Having said that, he is in the process of being toilet trained. He had had few successful accident-free days at the nursery (touchwood!) and we are hoping that the run will continue. At home as well, he is having nappy-free hours which are being gradually increased.

London Underground

While taking Anirud for a walk, I took him towards our local train station. Thanks to the 'Underground Ernie' programme in the telly, he is very familiar with London Underground's logo. Though my idea was to let him have a glimpse of the train from outside, the station staff was kind enough to let us inside the platform even though we were not travelling. As a train approached the platform, one could see a 1000-watt bulb glowing on Anirud's face. Thanks to the fact that the station being the last one on the network, Anirud got more time to watch the train in awe. As if that is not enough, the train driver let him inside his cabin for a couple of minutes and even let him make the train whistle. Wasn't that enough to make his day?

It is not Anirud's first train ride or anything like that. The last time we travelled in a tube, he wasn't even two. These days, he is able to appreciate things better and is able to relate to what he sees elsewhere. Someday, we are planning to take him to the train museum nearby, that has got lot of joy train rides.

Fun Fair

Anirud had some good fun in the rain marred fun fair that was held in our town. As that place is so close to his nursery, for more than a week he had been watching the place getting ready with equipment for various rides being set up on the location. The day before the fair started, they were doing the test rides and if he had had his way, he would have gatecrashed in to one of the rides. He especially like the ride on a lil' fire engine that had a 'ding dong bell' (that was exactly what he told).

Isn't it wrong?

One evening last week, Anirud stopped me and said in an authoritative voice: "Appa, ammava yen push panre? Adhu thapilla?" (Dad, why are you pushing mom? Isn't it wrong?). The sheer tone of his voice while saying this was something we enjoyed though we are not sure if he was trying to be extra smart in covering up what he did by pointing the blame on me or if he really observed me pushing his mom.

We used to pull up Anirud if he does something wrong and the above is the way that we normally talk. Seems that this brat has observed that a lot and used it at a right time. One another reminder about the choice of words that we should be using.

Letter Recognition

On the other day, we were at a restaurant when Anirud grabbed the menu card and went on like 'D potrukku, O potrukku, S potrukku, A potrukku' meaning 'Here is D - O - S - A'. We were in for a shock as we never expected him to recognise alphabets, that too from a word printed with a combination of upper and lower cases. On further prodding, we realised that he could recognise as many as a dozen different alphabets.

Craft work

Easter Greeting card done by Anirud.

Writing

In the recent times, Anirud's way of holding the pen has improved. Previously, he used to hold the pen in a clinched fist. These days he is trying to hold the pen using his three fingers (Thumb, Pointer and the Middle), although his grip needs to improve. We have got him quite a lot of books for writing practice and hoping that very soon, he will take to writing properly.

Mask

When we visited Frankie & Benny's restaurant, Anirud was given a paper mask of that of a tiger. He got so excited with the mask that all through the evening, he was wearing it and trying to 'frighten' us with tiger's roar. :-))

Tissue Boy

We wouldn't be surprised if Anirud ends up working for Kleenex. These days, he can even live without food or water, but can't do without a pack of tissues. Be it to wipe off the running nose or to get rid of the grain of rice that fell on his body while consuming food, he needs tissues. To differentiate the kitchen tissues and the facial tissues, he refers to the latter as 'tissue pack' and carries one most of the time, whether he needs it or not.

Habits & Timeout

Thanks to Anirud's time at school and nursery, he has picked up lots of habits - both good and bad in equal measure. Good ones include taking his food only at the table, wearing his jacket on his own without any help and few more. On the other hand, he is annoyingly seen spitting and at times kicks/beats us. Over the last few weeks, we have managed to contain (touchwood!) his spitting habit, thanks to the timeout technique. When one of our friend told us about the timeout technique, we were initially apprehensive. But it works amazingly well with Anirud. Hope the effectiveness continues.

Illness

We were a lot worried about the recent bout of Anirud's illness. We heaved a big sigh of relief when the doctor ruled out tuberclosis (TB) after analysing his blood tests. Upon meticulous observation of his coughing pattern for the past 10 days, we find that he coughs only when his nose is blocked due to cold. Further, there is cold on his chest. Earlier on, his vigorous coughing for few days led us to think that he might have some other complications. But that doesn't seem to be the case now. It is nothing but a regular cold and cough that dragged on for a bit too long.

Naked Pooh

While playing with 'Winnie the Pooh' soft toy, Anirud took out Winnie's red shirt. While he was proudly proclaiming his achievement, I mentioned that Winnie will take away his dresses just as he did when he was fast asleep. This happened in the evening and we all forgot about it. At night, in the bed, Anirud was seen taking away his duvet to check if his dresses are in place. He was telling us that Winnie might make him a 'Shame Shame Puppy Shame' boy by taking away his dresses. ;-))

Blood Test

Blood test turned out to be an anti-climax. There were two nurses at the hospital who went about the task of taking the blood sample, while the other - designated as 'Play Specialist' kept him busy with 'Thomas and Friends' engine. While coming out of the hospital, Anirud was asking why they hadn't given him injection implying that he didn't even realise that the blood was taken.

Photo Shoot

We booked up a photo shoot for Anirud over the weekend. A professional photographer clicked about 150 photographs in various outfits and backgrounds. We are yet to see the edited / touched upon output yet, but I guess it will happen soon where we need to choose one to be printed in big size. Anirud was cooperating well for a long time when he exactly did as the photographer wanted him to, but towards the end, it became a bit boring for him and he started running around. But the best part was that those photographs that were clicked when he was doing things on his own had come out really well.

Cough

Anirud has been coughing vigorously for the last few days. He has been suffering from cold and cough for the last few weeks and the doctors have been saying that it is some virus that will go away on its own. But this time around, our doc has asked him to go for a blood test next week. I guess that is going to be the next challenging task in front of us. Keeping our fingers crossed about the scene he is going to create while the blood is drawn.

Works of Art

Some painting and craft work done by Anirud at his playgroup.


On the day he came back from school with this painting, there was more paint on his dress than on the chart. :-)


This is supposedly some work of art meant to be done with a bit of colour on the fingers.


Oh yeah... It is very much a Valentine's Day card. Not sure if he knows what it is.


Assume this to be a monkey and you'll get it right. Made with paper plate and pieces of brown paper.

How about a cuppa?

While passing by a Starbucks Coffee shop, Anirud tapped on my shoulders and said: 'appa, oru coffee saapttu polama?' (How about a cup of coffee beforwe we proceed?). Wonder where from these buggers catch all this.

Digger & Fire Engine

On the way to Anirud's school, there is a shop that rents out industrial tools. That shop has prominently puts up their digger and other earth moving equipment on display at their forecourt. This coupled with the usage of digger in the nearby construction site has triggered Anirud's interest in that equipment that he watches it in awe whenever it is being operated somewhere. One fine day, he asked us whether he could buy one of those huge machines for ourselves. Apart from that, he would only want a Fire Engine (real one). :)

First Hit?

Seems that Anirud has got hit by his classmate at school. As he hasn't yet got the concept of a teacher who will be 'controlling' the class, he mentioned about that at home later on. He was very clear about what happened as he consistently demonstrated the incident several times along with the name of the boy who did that. Anirud was taught how to issue a stern warning and take it further if that happens again. Let us see how this turns out.

Viral Infection

Three weeks ago, Anirud caught the all common cold while at school. The doc said that it is a sort of viral infection and would only go away on its own. Unfortunately, that still continues and he has been finding it difficult to breathe during the night. In the recent days, he has been coughing vigorously as well. More than two different doctors have confirmed that all is well with him and there is nothing to worry. Just that it pains a bit when he suffers. Hopefully, this should build up his immune system well.

Online Ordering

Out of the blue, Anirud was asking us to buy him some sweets from the shop. On being told that it is Sunday and the shops will be closed, he threw us a bouncer with his response - "laptop-la order pannu pa" (Order it from the laptop). When we quizzed him further on what he meant by that, he had got the basics right. He was saying if we order the sweets from the laptop, the postman will cook and bring home some sweets. That funny bit apart, a 2.5 year old talking about online ordering was indeed a bit surprising. Think this generation's kids are way ahead than we could possibly assume. Guess we can't take things for granted any more.

Anjaneyar Effect

Ever since we started telling stories about Anjaneyar (Lord Hanuman), Anirud's naughtiness has increased manifold. He is mischievously climbing on to the table, trying to reach the top of the fridge with a stool and gives us a trying time. He has become a big time 'vaalu' and that is where we see a connection between him and Anjaneyar. :-)

Early to Bed - Early to Rise

Due to his nursery timings, Anirud's sleep timings have changed a bit. He is being put to bed at around 8:30 ~ 9:00 pm and wakes up around 7:00 am, which suits us really well. He doesn't sleep in the afternoons these days.

Lunch Club at School

Anirud has joined the lunch club at school, which means that he will stay at school for an extra hour or two sharing the table with fellow brats. He is very excited about getting his lunch packed and carrying that to school, that he starts pestering us to pack the lunch box since dawn.

Nursery

Due to the fact that Anirud has nothing else to do on those days he doesn't go to school (He will be attending school only for couple of days a week at this stage. Full time schooling will start only at the age of five), he was sent to a nursery (creche) so that he could get to meet few more kids of his age. He had few settling-in sessions during which he was very happy and enthusiastic. After three such sessions, it was decided to start the full time sessions. The first day went off really well, with him feeling a bit upset when he woke up in an unfamiliar environment after a short nap. The second day was the worst of all. He had cried and cried and cried for the whole day that he got worn out of crying and slept. We felt sorry for him, but from the third day onwards he took things relatively easily, even promising to 'be a good boy and not to cry' and he did. Thank god for that! :) Few more sessions later, he has started liking the place and looks forward to go there.

Anirud starts schooling

Anirud started his academic life by stepping into school for the first time today. Strictly speaking, this is not the beginning of school education as it is only a play group. Yet this is a beginning and formal schooling would happen in due course. From today there would be some sort of structured routine for the next 20 odd years. Wish him well.