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.