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.