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.

Mottai boss with some hair

40 days after the 'mottai', hair is growing thick and fast. These days, he could be heard proclaiming "mottai mandaila mutti (mudi)" (hair on the shaven head). :)

Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk

After returning from India, Anirud's chatter has increased manifold. He constantly comments, questions, announce something or other. His incessant chatter drives us nuts and quite literally so when he does that while driving the car. There was a time when we were eagerly waiting for him to utter a word or two. Now we wish he could keep quiet at least for few minutes.

Snippets from India Trip

Cow Farm - On the day we arrived at our home in Chennai, there were quite a few cows sitting on our street. Immediately, Anirud declared the place as 'cow farm' and continues to refer it that way.

Crackers - It was the first Deepavali in India for Anirud. Though there weren't that many crackers in the neighbourhood as was the case few years ago, whatever noise that came out was a bit too much for him. At first, he was shocked at the sound but later on he got along with that and even showed interest in handling the sparklers. Whenever a cracker went off on the street, he referred to that as 'vedi saththam'.

Motorbike - For the first time ever, Anirud travelled in a motor bike. He was seated on the tank while driving, but the trouble is he was getting bored that he started turning sideways. So, we gave him the job of honking whenever we needed to and he did that job to perfection. However, as an extra service he switched on the lights and indicators very often.

Appa College - For days before our trip to India, we have been telling Anirud that we would be visiting the college where his dad studied and we did. It was for a college re-union and as it happened to be a holiday, he was happily running around the place saying 'appa college'. Being a kid, quite naturally he was the toast of the gathering and some guys were using him to pull each other's legs. Some of his dad's mates made Anirud call a guy named 'swamy' as 'poli swamy'.

Thaathaa - Both of Anirud's thaathaas (grandpas) turned out to be his world during our three week stay in India, for they were the ones who tried every bit to bring the world towards him. Both of them walked, ate, slept and breathed with Anirud that no wonder he chose to ignore everyone else. If Anirud is asked to name someone he misses from India, he would name both his thaathaas without a moment of hesitation.

Trains - Anirud had his heart's fill with trains. Apart from travelling in super fast Pallavan Express to Trichy, his grandpa ensured that he was taken in local trains as well, just for the sake of travelling. He was taken upto Mambalam Railway station, made to wait for an hour or so seeing all the trains that went past and got into one and travelled back home. Weeks after we returned back to UK, all of a sudden he was saying that he wants to visit 'Tambaram Railway Station'. :)

Cuckoo Clock - A non-functional Cuckoo clock in our home at Chennai turned out to be one of Anirud's favourite toys. His grandpa would make the cuckoo come out of its nest by pressing a button and that seemed to fascinate Anirud. He would have called out the cuckoo not less than 300 times during our stay.

Elephant - For the first time in his life, Anirud saw an elephant. He was really awed by its sheer size and majesty. He was taken to the Rockfort temple at Trichy and shown the elephant there. The animal touched Anirud's head with its tusk and he was quite thrilled at that. Back home, he is using his hand to touch everyone's head to explain the above and proudly says that he went to 'mallaikottai' (Rockfort) to see the elephant. While saying the word 'mallaikottai', he would say it in such a way that the words would crumble along.

Silver Colour Gun Shop - I think Anirud loves specialisation. According to him, each item in the world will have an exclusive shop for itself. Like he would go to 'kadalamuttai shop' (peanut candy shop) to buy 'kadalamuttai', a day before Diwali he went to 'silver colour gun shop' to buy a 'Silver colour gun'.

Mottai Boss

Anirud is now a 'mottai boss', having got his head tonsured at our family deity's temple near Sirkazhi. While we expected him to make a big scene while getting his hair shaved off, he didn't even make a whimper. He was happily juggling with a mobile phone and was talking to the barber who went about doing the job with utmost ease. From that day on, he proudly shows off his head as 'mottai mandai' and sometimes he wants us to call him 'mottai boss'.

Royally Pampered

We went to India on a three week trip and Anirud has returned back royally pampered. He was treated as a royal at both his grand parent's house that reality is a bit tough for him to take after returning to UK. If his maternal grand parents in Trichy appeased by feeding him by getting him seated on a motor bike, at Chennai his paternal grandpa took pampering to new levels. Anirud had his own, small chair to sit. Where ever he went, his grandpa not only followed him with a chair, but also a little stool to rest his feet. No wonder children and grand parents are great allies.

Vijayadasami

On the auspicious Vijayadasami Day, at an auspicious time, Anirud prayed to God and with the help of his mom wrote 'OM' and few other Tamil alphabets on the rice spread out on a plate. Though he has been scribbling a lot on the walls already, this is meant to be the beginning of his education and traditionally it would be done with a little ceremony where the child would write few letters on the paddy amidst reciting of slokams. Being in UK, we neither had paddy, nor were we aware of the exact traditional way of doing things. So, we had to settle for 'whatever possible here' approach.

Thengaai Saadham

'Thengaai Saadham' (Coconut Rice) is the flavour of the current season for Anirud. He wants that prepared very often claiming that he likes it very much ('romba romba pudikkum'). On the other day, we were at our friend's place when someone asked Anirud 'What do you like to eat?'. Before they could finish the question, pat came his reply - "enakku thengaai saadham romba romba pudikkum" (I like Coconut Rice very much).

For the moment, 'kadalamuttai' (peanut candy) has taken the back seat.

Chennai Dosa

After taking Anirud to Chennai Dosa restaurant at Wembley quite a few times in the recent months, he seems to have become a fan of that place. All of a sudden, he would ask 'Chennai toosa polaam' (Lets go to Chennai Dosa) and when taken to, he knows what exactly he wants - a plain dosai. He would happily take out pieces of dosa from the plate, put them in his mouth after dipping them in 'geen colour chutney' (Green), 'ettu colour chutney' (Red coloured chutney) and 'sambhar' in such a way that he would not even be able to have a remote sense of taste of those chutneys.

Introduction

Most of the time Anirud sees a kid of his age, he stretches out his hand and mutters, "hello paapa. my name is aninudh". However much we try to cut out the 'paapa' (baby) in the monologue, he mentions that without fail. He is very amused and disappointed when the other kid doesn't respond and runs away.

Thillumullu

Rajini (referred as 'Ashini') is Anirud's favourite hero at the moment. He has watched the movie 'Thillumullu' to his heart's content, but would still want to watch it more often. :)

Get-together

Anirud had a good time at the Deepavali get-together we had organised recently. He never bothered us and so did we, though we kept an eye on him. At one stage, he went missing for few minutes before emerging from behind the curtains. As there were couple of push doors at the venue leading to the exit, that caused some anxious moments before we spotted him.

After the get-together, we came to know from one of our friends that Anirud and one another boy of same age were naughtily trying to climb up the chair and access something kept at a height.

Whining

Of late, Anirud is whining for everything. The moment we say something to correct him, however softer the tone is, tears start to roll down his cheeks and he starts to protest. Basically, he has entered the phase where he doesn't like to be told that he needs to mend his ways. This is a solvable issue and we are not unduly bothered. We are travelling to India in the next 10 days and we expect him to pick up few more bad habits as a result of being coochie-cooed by all and sundry. Once we return to our base, we must start 'Operation Anirud' to set things straight.

Timidity

Whenever he meets any strangers (adults) these days, Anirud puts his head down and hardly looks up. This is a total contrast to the scene few months ago when he was relatively ease in mixing with people. Even now, he is comfortable after about 15 minutes or so and in case there is a child around, he doesn't feel timid.

Bed Time

Anirud has got his own bed now. He calls it fish bed as the quilt and pillow cover has got colourful fishes in them. He has also got a companion in 'Noddy' that most of the days (whenever Anirud remembers) Noddy is made to sleep first at the bed time. The only trouble we have at the moment is Anirud doesn't go to bed on his own. He would like us to put off the lights and sleep as well.

Bank Shop

According to Anirud, every building in the High Street is a shop. So, it means that we have a 'Bank Shop' in our town.

Tesco's Brand Ambassador

Anirud is well suited to be called as the Brand Ambassador for Tesco. He has taken an immense liking for the supermarket (probably coz he is able to say that name properly) that whenever we mention a thing about shopping, he brings in Tesco's name. Also, he is able to recognise Tesco's logo painted anywhere - be it a carry bag, vans, petrol stations, catalogue, buildings etc from any distance and whenever he spots one his face lits up.

Chatter

Anirud is constantly chattering these days. Day by day, his words are becoming clearer and he keeps on talking, especially if we are travelling in a car. Sometimes it becomes a bit difficult to concentrate on the road that we ask him to shut up and feel sorry about that.

List

Whenever we speak to our folks in India, Anirud gives out a list of shops that he wants him to be taken to. It goes on like 'kadalamuttaaai shop, mixture shop, vedi shop, dress shop, toy shop' in that order.

School Visit

As Anirud is fast approaching school age, we made a visit to two of the schools nearby. As is the practice here, one of the senior members of the staff took us around the school and watch the activities for ourselves. In one of the schools, we spent more than 1.5 hours and Anirud started playing with the children over there. He would be starting with 'playgroup' in Jan next year and would move to Nursery only in September 2008.

Play Area

Anirud was taken to the soft play area in the nearby town. He loved it so much that he played there like mad for 2 hours. Back home, he was damn tired and had severe leg aches that he woke up so many times in the night crying with pain.

Tamil Rhymes

After watching the CD containing Tamil Rhymes with animated characters, Anirud is able to recite quite a few of them now.

Fun Day

Over the weekend, Anirud was taken to Fun Day organised by the company I work for. He had a roll of a time there taking part in all of the activities and games. The one he liked most is Robbie - the land train that he travelled in that about half a dozen times. Also, he chased down the tortoise and busybee clad men to give/get a warm hug. He got a chance to explore the fire engine, activate its siren, use the water hose to good effect, pedal a cycle, jump on the bouncy castle, run through the mazes etc.

Few photos taken during the day.

Where did Lord Muruga sit?

Anirud was told a short mythical story, which went on like below. Lord Muruga and Lord Vinayaka wanted to lay their claim on a holy fruit (Mango) brought over by Naradar. As they were told that the fastest one to return after going around the world once would get the fruit, Lord Muruga set out on his peacock and came back in no time. In the mean time, Lord Vinayaka felt that his parents were his world, went around them once and got the fruit himself. Enraged at the injustice meted out to him, Lord Muruga came to the earth, climbed up the hill and sat there.

At somepoint while the story was being told, it seems that Anirud's attention drifted away. When he was asked 'Where did Lord Muruga go and sit?', he thought for a minute and said, 'In the sofa'.

Rain Rain Go Away shop

At the local High Street..

Dad: What shop is that?
Anirud: Toy shop

Dad: What is that?
Anirud: Dress shop

Dad: What is that?
Anirud: suu shop (Shoe shop)

Dad: What shop is that?
Anirud: ikeem shop (Icecream shop)

Dad: What is that?
Anirud: Ain ain go away shop (Rain rain go away shop)

Dad: What shop is that?
Anirud (pointing to the umbrellas in the display) - Ain ain go away shop!

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.