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.

Police / Fire Engine

Whenever Anirud sees someone with a cap and some sort of uniform, he immediately cries 'Policeman.. Policeman'. Same goes for the vehicles with siren and flashing light on top. However, he is clearly able to distinguish between the vehicles belonging to Police, Fire service and Ambulance. Whether this is by chance or otherwise remains to be seen. As the fire station is located closer to our home, he sees the fire engine more often and that is his favourite among the three.

Softplay

Anirud was taken to a soft play area in Beaconsfield over the weekend. He enjoyed the place to the core in the company of Varsha and Advika. There was a dark tunnel in there that would run about 50 metres or so from a height of 30 feet, which was a bit frightening when one looks at the dark mouth of the tunnel. The kids did not have an iota of fear and jumped into the tunnel so many times with ease. Good for them as they had a ball of a time.

Sausages

Seems that Anirud has got bored of the food items that are made available to him regularly. He refuses to have cereals for breakfast, flavoured yoghurt in the evenings these days. He would like to have new food items on his menu and his latest favourite is Veg Sausages.

Sickness

For about 3 weeks, Anirud suffered from cold, cough and fever. This was followed by the usual round of food refusal and all the bad habits. Surprisingly, the food refusal phase got extended by several days and left us worried. Good thing was that Anirud was at his active best during this period. When consulted, the Doc said that it is a kind of virus that would not make him feel hungry. Eventually, Anirud started eating on his own after 2 weeks of near-complete hunger strike.

Characters

Anirud has got a set of characters that he is able to identify and relate to - Noddy, Bob the Builder, Fireman Sam, Winnie the Pooh, Thomas & Friends (trains) to name a few. He recognizes those characters where ever he sees them, be it on TV or elsewhere.

Thomas and Friends

When a relative of ours got Anirud a small toy Train from Thomas & Friends, his joy knew no bounds. He loves the train like anything and the story book that accompanied the toy is his current favourite. We bought him a 'Thomas & Friends' dress and every day Anirud insists on wearing that dress.

Beach

When Anirud was taken to Bournemouth beach couple of weeks ago, he fell in love with the water instantaneously. He never wanted to come back from the water and we had to forcibly pull him away. He used the slightest of the chances to escape from our clutches and run towards water though we managed to pull him back to safety. Wish we lived at a coastal town now.

Climbing

These days Anirud uses both the washing machine and the dryer to good effect to get on top of the kitchen table. We are shit scared that he might fall down someday and strongly discourage him from going anywhere near the washing machine.

First Movie

Anirud watched Superstar Rajnikanth's 'Sivaji - The Boss' yesterday at Safari Cinema in Harrow. It so happens that the very first movie for Anirud happens to be the first day, first show of the most expected movie of the year. At the theatre, once he got adapted to the environment he jumped out of his seat and started to wander. As he was about to do that, the lights went off and the movie started amidst lot of whistling and cat calls. Taken aback, this little fella rushed to his mom and remained seated on her lap till the end. He watched the movie in awe and slept towards the end. While we were returning, he was saying 'rayyinni' (Rajini) and 'ballikka' (Balleilikka song). Today he was asking us to play 'pookkal pookkal' song (Sahaana... Pookkal Pooththadho!). He is able to recognise Rajinikanth in the adverts. Well.. another young fan for the Super Star.

Kuttikaranam

After trying several times, Anirud has learnt to do a near-perfect somersault. The only bit where he fails is he falls from the side rather than forward. As long as he tries in the carpeted floor, it is fine. Hope he wouldn't learn it the hard way by trying the same on a concrete floor.

Mad about books

Mad about books
Anirud is mad about books these days. Every week we borrow about 7-10 kid's books from the local library and he makes sures that we explain him the contents of the same. One particular book - a story of a bear named Andrew is his favourite that he always prefer that for bedtime story reading. Also, in the library there is a headphone which on putting over one's ear would play nursery rhymes. That has caught the fancy of every little kid including Anirud.

Apart from that, he insists on visiting the library whenever we step out of the house. Library, which is literally a stone's throw from our house is a place that we had to pass through for almost everything, has become a new chill out location for Anirud.

Fruity Boy

Anirud is able to identify most of the fruits now and as always he is a big fan of fruits. We have to literally hide the fruits from his view before the mealtime as otherwise he would insist on taking the fruits rather than any other food. Strawberry continues to be his favourite and he like Banana, Pineapple, Melon, Raspberries, Orange, Grapes, Apple and Mango. He would never accept a peeled Banana but would like to peel it himself though he doesn't know how to do that properly.

Mimicking the Animals

After having visited Odd's Farm last month, Anirud does well in tyring to mimic the animals. Also, whenever he sees a cow at a far away farm, he would start shouting "Moo.. Moo!"

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.