Books

Anirud has got a big load of books gifted by our friends. They have all got stories, pictures, rhymes and what not. Very soon, story telling session needs to be resumed for him.

Seedai

Anirud has taken a liking for 'seedai'. When a friend from Chennai brought us a pack of that savoury, Anirud popped one into his mouth and started demanding more. He sits comfortably with a bowl full of 15-20 seedais, bites, chews them one by one comfortably before returning the bowl. Sounds cool, eh?

Jo Jingles

Anirud has been enrolled in Jo Jingles classes. A group of 20 kids of Anirud's age are gathered at a place, given some little musical toys/instruments, reasonably loud music is played and these blokes are made to dance, lie down and what not. Most of the times, each of these fellas behave in their own way and looks like each one has their own favourite pranks. It is fun and Anirud enjoys that a lot, but he was seen running towards the audio system to turn it off/on. One thing that came to light was that Anirud struggled a bit to comprehend the instructions given in English. Perhaps, he should be spoken to in English as well as in Tamil.

Swimming

Anirud had his first swimming lesson last Saturday. At first, he seemed to enjoy it. Then, as the water splashed on his face he got frightened and he was crying for the next 15 minutes. Later on, he got habituated and started to enjoy it while the class wound up for the day. Anirud is the youngest one in the class, but other children seem to have been in water before as they quickly learnt to float reasonably well. The next 12 weeks should be lot of fun and hopefully Anirud will have some 'water confidence' by the end of it.

Enigma

At present three things remain as enigma for Anirud - Key fob of the car, Kitchen Knife and Iron Box, as all of these are off limits for him. Key fob of the car is not that dangerous like the other two to be kept away from him, but then the reason for his fascination towards that object is the fact that he is able to lock/unlock the car that causes the indicator lights in the car to flash. Not sure when Anirud would be succeeding in his mission of capturing those items.

Nosey

Anirud likes it when we rub our nose on his. Once done, he tries to initiate the process from his end, but funnily enough he brings his mouth to the fore front. As he has a flat nose, whenever he tries to rub his nose on ours, it is his lips that get rubbed off (with all the saliva).

Tipped Toes

For the last few weeks Anirud has been walking on tipped toes. Previously, he used to stand so in order to get a better view of the table. Funniest thing is that he manages to walk so for a reasonable distance and he is quite quick in that.

999

Like many children in UK do, Anirud dialled 999 (emergency number) from our landline last evening and quietly hung up the phone. The Police promptly rang back home to check it out. As a result, phones that could be reached by Anirud have been switched off at home.

Talking beyond Hi

Anirud has started talking a lot over the phone these days. Earlier he used to keep mum and just listen to the person at the other end, but these days he talks a lot, albeit in a language that no one can understand.

A Bad Hair Cut

For some unknown reason Anirud started crying while his hair was being cut. Any amount of cajoling didn't help and the hair dresser had to abort the attempt half way through. This is in total contrast to the previous time when he didn't move an inch that prompted the hair dresser to give a discount in the charge.

Hi!

Hi! - This was the ad slogan for Hutch mobile when they set foot in Chennai about 4 years ago. Now, this is the latest word in Anirud's vocabulary. A friend of Anirud's mom said 'hi' to him over phone and immediately he caught that word and was heard repeating that all evening.

Naughty? Nah...

Naughty is no more an apt word for Anirud. He has gone several steps beyond that in the recent weeks. He puts the vessels in the washing machine, hides the jar of the blender inside the medicine rack, switches off the laptop, pushes the chair nearer to the table so that it is convenient for him to climb on, tries to hop on from his cot to the bigger bed and the list goes on. The hunt is still on for a missing mixie(food blender) lid. Don't know what is in store in the coming days.

Habits

In the recent days, Anirud has started imitating the rest at home. Few of his favourite imitations are

1) If he gets hold of a towel, he would try to dry his hair even when it is already dry.

2) Whenever he finds a key, he immediately goes near the door and puts that into the keyhole trying to see if that fits.

3) On seeing others do the situps (thoppukaranam) before God he does that as well, but without his hands touching his ears.

4) Anirud would place his imaginary phone near his ear, tilt his head, hold the phone(?) with his shoulder and walk away talking.

Perhaps, this is how children develop new habits.

Self Eating

Anirud has been introduced to family dining, where every one would have dinner at the same time at the dining table. Of course, Anirud would be sitting on his high chair. On seeing others eat, he tried to do the same and in the process finished of half a chapathi, which is a decent quantity going by his recent food intake metrics over the last month or so. This appears to be one of the good ways of teaching him the art of self eating.

I hate YELLOW

For some reason, Anirud hates the colour book. He is fine to flip through the pages of any book and see the pictures, but he gets annoyed if the colour book is shown to him. Sometimes, he is sort of okay with the colour book as well, but there is a strict 'no no' for yellow colour. Only he would be able to explain one day as why Yellow became his nemesis all of a sudden.

Kick & You'll Get it Back

Anirud has got this bad habit of kicking people when he is in foul mood. As he hates food these days, he tends to kick the person who tries to give him food. Recently, he kicked the food bowl and the compliment was returned back in kind.

Poor Eater

Of late, Anirud has become a poor eater. It is a big struggle to make him eat any solid food, esp. carbohydrate rich rice and wheat food. For the last month or so, he is living on yoghurt and fruits.

Few more words

In the same lines of 'Yaanai', 'Karadi' (bear) turned 'Kaadi' and 'Vaali' (bucket) turned 'Aali' for Anirud.

Hee-Haw Hee-Haw

No one actually knows what Anirud means by saying this, but he has been chanting 'Hee-Haw Hee-Haw' quite regularly for several weeks now.

Filter Coffee please!

Anirud doesn't want Horlicks / Ovaltine / Complan. He has taken a liking to Filter Coffee. He gulps down more than half a tumbler of the beverage when he is offered one.