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.