No Water

After he got introduced to Orange Juice, Anirud had almost stopped taking water. He hardly takes 2 or 3 sips of water from the glass. Sometimes his lips go dry and that time he would take a sip or two, but not anymore. The Health Visitor adviced us that it is a passing phase and his body might be getting the fluid through the regular intake of fruits.

Adamant

Showing signs of a growing up toddler, Anirud is becoming more and more adamant some of the days. Whenever he is taken to the nearby park, he refuses to return back and creates a scene by crying and wailing all the way back home. Some other days, he always wants to stay out in the garden and play. It is perfectly understandable that he is getting bored of being inside the house and wants to have a go, but very often we lose our patience on his adamant postures and that is when the problem begins.

Grandparent's visit

All through April, Anirud's maternal grandparents gave him good company. Right from the moment he met his grandpa at the airport they instantly became mates and both of them had a jolly good time to their heart's content. That we were able to leave him for quite a few hours with his grandparents is a good enough proof of how Anirud got attached to them. Hundreds of pictures of Anirud were taken and printed during this time and he learnt quite a lot of stuff as well.

Toddler Group

Anirud enjoys his time at the Toddler group. Its a shame that it happens only once a week, which is hardly enough for him. In particular, he likes see-saw and it would be tough to drag him away from that. Its a good chance for him to mingle with other children of his age group. We are looking at putting him in other toddler groups in our area should there be a chance.

Never give up sonny!

However far the shore may be, never give up.

Happy Birthday!

Arundha Vaalu

Very often we call Anirud an 'arundha vaalu'. Its literal meaning won't make any sense, but it is meant to convey that he is someone with lot of pranks in his kitty. We were trying for quite sometime to get Anirud a good looking shoulder bag, but we managed to find one just recently. It looks good when it is put up behind his back. It comes along with a harness using which his movement could be controlled. Already he has become the cynosure of many eyes when he walks around sporting that bag.

Trike & Toys

Anirud got a new 'Winnie the Pooh' trike, which he enjoys that like anything. Ever since we got the trike he has been living on it. Though he doesn't know how to pedal that, there is a push handle with which we could push the trike around. We took him around once and ever since he has been pestering for more road trips. Not just a trike, Anirud has got an 'Abacus', a 'Thomas and Friends' train, 'Winnie the Pooh' pillow on account of his birthday next month.

Habits

It takes lot of time, effort and patience to make a kid learn some good practices. We struggled for more than a month to make Anirud sleep in his cot when he was about 6-7 months old. Several months later as he learnt to climb out of the cot, we took him to our bed and that is it. He never goes back to his cot again. Same with the self feeding. After weeks of training, we gave in coz his illness and it is difficult to make him get back to his old ways. More than the cot issue, we are very keen about his self feeding habit.

Potty

Potty training is about to be started and we have got the necessary stuff like potty, trainer pants, trainer toilet seats etc. Next few weeks/months is going to be either interesting or taxing, depending on our moods and how we look at the situation.

Lala

We tried to see if Anirud could identify the miniature soft toy of 'Lala' character (of Teletubbies) at the 'Toys R Us' shop. Within a second of seeing that, he screamed out 'Laa Laa' and made an 'ekkuuv' sound like the character would do it would in the telly. The next day, when that day's episode of Teletubbies ended, Anirud was so very disappointed that he started crying.

Late Riser

Of late, Anirud wakes up at around 9 am or beyond. We are responsible for that as we have been putting him to bed only late. This triggers so many problems that he is unable to nap in the afternoons, so that he ends up being cranky in the evenings. We are trying to change that habit a bit by putting him to bed at 9:15 pm and waking him up by 7 am. This suits every one, but it remains to be seen as how long we manage to follow/enforce this new routine.

Stunt

Upon seeing a stunt scene while watching a Tamil movie in the telly, Anirud mocked the scene by lifting one of his leg, shouted few 'aah.. hooo's and rolled on the floor with false pain.

Harness

We got Anirud a child harness, that lets him walk freely beside us without we having to hold his hand all the time. Anirud enjoys that every bit that he is allowed to wander free in the high street and supermarkets. These days he prefers this harness to the buggy coz of the above.

Cold Again

Anirud has caught cold again. As his nose gets blocked, he is unable to breath properly as a result of which he suffers a lot without being able to sleep during the nights.

Apology

As Anirud was adviced by his mom to take care of his belongings when he inadervently broke the magic eraser board, he made it clear that he didn't like any advice by trying to hit her with his hand. He was asked to apologise, which he didn't. Soon he was made to sit on the table from where he couldn't get down and we made it a point not to talk with him unless he apologised. He tried his best to grab our attention, but when nothing worked he sheepishly said 'soiieee' (Sorry!). He does appear stubborn, but we are hell bent on making him learn the lessons of life that are due at that stage.

Questions - aa?

Anriud repeats almost everything we say. His pronounciation is not clear, but understandable to some extent. Most of the times he picks up the key word, suffix it with 'aa' and make that a question. For example, if we were discussing something on cars, he would turn to us and ask 'car-aa?'.

Vaccum Cleaner

The latest toy that Anirud loves is the hand vaccum cleaner. Whenever he could lay his hands on it, he never lets go the opportunity to use that all over the place though we suspect that he doesn't know what that equipment is doing.

Swimming Lessons - Third Term

Anirud has been enrolled for the third term of his swimming lessons. Most of his batch mates are quite new, which makes this fella a super senior, though he is the youngest among the lot. He hasn't learnt anything about bullying, lest he might resort to those things.

Laptop

When Anirud's mom left open the laptop and moved away to attend an incoming call, he quietly shut down the system, waited for it to turn black, closed the laptop and took it to the table where it is normally kept. For his age, the laptop was quite a bit heavy, but he pushed himself hard and carried it with all care.

Extending his Reach

Look how Anirud is reaching the stuff on the table. A vessel from the kitchen comes in handy (leggy) for him.

P.S.: This is the 100th post on this blog.