Blue Car

On the day when there were quite a few guests at home, our car was parked in a garage away from the usual parking slot. Anirud sensed that the car was missing and he kept looking for the car often saying 'boo car' (Blue Car). Whenever other blue cars were pointed to, he dismissed them as he realised that they were not ours.

Sleeplessness

If Anirud doesn't sleep for at least an hour during the day, he will be at his crankiest best in the evenings until he goes to bed. He would not sleep during the day if he had not taken his food well. He would not take his food properly, if he was suffering from fever/cold/cough. So if at all he catches cold, we know where it would lead to and start to get anxious.
Best part in this is one fine day he didn't sleep in the afternoon and we were getting ready to go out in the evening. Anirud was standing near the sofa, felt tired and started to sleep in the standing position with his head resting on the sofa.

Ironing Board

As soon as one of us sets up the ironing board, Anirud would drop whatever he is doing and bring the iron box in a minute. No one taught him to do that and we never expected him to do it that way.

Sorry to me!

These days Anirud is ready to apologise if he hurts anyone physically. As soon as someone cries with pain, he immediately says 'Soyeee' and smooths the part that got hurt. It was a steep climbdown from his previous position when he had ego about the size of a mountain to apologise. What we are keen that he should understand is that he shouldn't hurt anyone in the first place.
On the other day, he hurt himself accidentally. Realising his folly immediately, he uttered a 'Sorry' and rubbed the part where he had hit. In effect, he was apologising to himself.

Rasam

On the otherday when we were working at the kitchen, Anirud pointed to a vessel with yellowish liquid and asked 'Sambaaraa?' (Is that Sambhar?). As I know that he relates most of the liquid food items of that colour with 'Sambhar', I said YES and brought him closer to the vessel. Having had a look for a few seconds, he immediately said 'Rasam' and walked away. Oh boy.. how correct he was.

Colours

Now, Anirud is able to recognise a good number of colours (Red, Green, Blue, White, Black, Yellow etc). He doesn't need to be asked about the colours anymore. As soon as he recognises any object of that colour, he instantly blurts out the name of the object with the colour.

Combined Words

Anirud has started to talk a bit more than he did earlier. Now, he is able to speak little sentences by combining upto three words. Though one would have to have an idea of the context to understand what he is saying, it is a lot better now.

Eating

As Anirud was cooed a lot in the recent days in the presence of his grandparents, it went on top of his head that he started to unlearn lot of good habits which we inculcated in him after lot of effort. He stopped eating on his own and even if we fed him, he would keep wandering around and wanted us to follow him.

Odd's Farm

Visited an animal farm named 'Odd's Farm' to distract Anirud from the disturbance caused due to the absence of his grandparents. It was a joy seeing him play with all the farm animals like Rabbits, Goats, Sheeps, Pigs, Donkeys and Cows. He was so excited seeing each one of them and he also fed food to a rabbit and goat. When he took the goat food and stretched his hands, the animal licked his hand in the process of consuming the food. I would remember the happiness in his face for my lifetime.

Thaathaa oookaa?

As his grandparents left for India on an early morning, Anirud realised their absence few minutes after waking up. He was in tears standing at the door expecting them to return back after a short outing. As we explained him that they have returned back to their place (oor) the reality sank in him few hours later. Every few minutes, he kept asking 'Thaathaa oookaa?' (thaathaa oorukka?) meaning 'Has grandpa gone back to his place?'. It took few weeks for him to come back to his normal self.

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.