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.