Where are we now?

Normally Anirud makes a mental note of the roads we frequently drive on. Upon entering a particular road, he would normally guess the destination we are headed to. Many a times, he would even tell the locality / town we are driving through. When we were driving through a new locality, Anirud's mom asked him, "where are we now?", with the idea of cornering him. Pat came the reply, "We are on the road".

Wii Board

Wii Fit is the latest toy that we have got for ourselves. The gadget comprises of a console attached to the TV and a Wii Fit Balance Board. As we work out on the board trying to shed those extra pounds, Anirud steps in trying to make use of the board at the same time. Normally, we give him some time to use the board all by himself, but as is the case with most kids of his age, he would want to use the board only when we need it. After a bit of thought, we took out the weighing scale (the one found in a physician's clinic) and told Anirud that it is a Wii Fit Balance Board for Babies. As Anirud is fond of anything that is meant for kids, he is more than happy with the weighing scale and letting us work out in peace. One never know when that bugger will find out the truth.

Aththai Visit

Anirud's aththai is on a two week visit to UK at present. In the days leading to her visit, Anirud was all excited about meeting her and was telling us about visiting the airport to collect her etc. On the day of her arrival, he woke up 1.5 hours before his usual time and was eagerly looked for her arrival. Not disappointing him, aththai brought loads of goodies that included a school bag, black slate, toys etc. After letting her settle down, he is royally driving her nuts by asking her to play with him all the time.

Upon observing us explaining to her about various things she might find new in this country, Anirud thinks that she is one person who doesn't seem to know a thing (sort of 'oor naattaan' in Tamil). It is funny to watch him explain her about all the little things - right from how to eat dosai (dosai-ya pichchu pichchu saapidanum) to how to switch on the telly.

Little Worries

Sometimes, Anirud worries like a grown-up and all of his worries would be on trivial things that actually has nothing to do with him. Couple of days ago, he woke up crying early in the morning. Upon being comforted he said, "Tesco-la vaangina new basmati rice-a use pannadhe" (don't use the new basmati rice bought at Tesco). After being assured that we won't be using it, he went back to sleep peacefully. Probably, he had a bad dream or something that made him worry about the Basmatic rice, of all the things in the world.

Another one of his recent worries is that I might go to work wearing a veshti (dhoti). He calmed down only after seeing me wear formal clothes.

Kadalamuttai Chocolate

What the rest of the world calls 'Snickers', Anirud calls it 'Kadalamuttai Chocolate'.

Lets buy a baby

When we were entering Tesco Superstore, a lady was coming out with her bags of purchase on one hand and with a two month old baby on the other. Upon seeing this, Anirud said without a moment's hesitation: "nammalum Tesco poy, indha maadhiri oru paapa vaangalaam pa" (Lets buy a baby like this from Tesco).

Best Behaviour

During the past week when Anirud's mom was not well and needed complete bed rest, Anirud packed up all his naughtiness and behaved in the best possible way that one could expect of a three year old. As his mom was suffering from conjunctivitis as well, it was important that she was quarantined. When told about that, he left the room quietly closing the door, confined himself to the lounge for most part of the day watching the telly at a low volume and even answered the phone couple of times. Needless to mention that we were mighty pleased with him on the hour of need. This post is to make sure that we not only make note of his crankiness, but also his good behaviour.

Puzzles

Anirud is very fond of jigsaw puzzles. He has crossed the stage of solving 6, 12 and 18 piece puzzles, but certainly not ready for a 500 piece one - which is sure to rob his interest if introduced to him at this stage. I am not sure if it is right or wrong - he doesn't solve the puzzles by looking at the picture. He does it by trial and error by trying to to fit in various pieces of the jigsaw and eventually gets it right. Very soon, we shall increase the challenge level in such a way that his interest level on this remains intact.

Question

Anirud had a poser for his mom today, "mummy, unakku kalyanam aayiduthaa?" (Mummy, have you got married?). Apparently, he had listened to her asking the same question to someone else. :)

Thittaadhe please!

The latest buzzword for Anirud these days seem to be 'enna thittaadhe please' (don't scold me, please). When he does something naughty, he could foresee our reaction and as soon as we open our mouth, he would say the above with a sorry look on his face. This, despite the fact that in the recent days we are extra cautious about not scolding or frightening him for his naughtiness unless he does something that is totally unacceptable.

Make it clear

As a big fan of Tesco, Anirud always has a question or two about the superstore. We were driving past a Tesco Express (smaller version of Tesco) last week, he asked me if that shop has got a parking space. As I was engrossed on something else, I mumbled a weak 'hmmmm'. Obviously annoyed at my answer, Anirud said loudly: 'appa, clear aa sollu. parking space irukaa, illaya. yes or no sollu' (Appa, say it clearly. Is there a parking space or not? Say, yes or no'.

Health

Anirud's health has been a cause of concern for us now. Since the dawn of 2008, he has been having some issue or other. First, it was the cold and cough that went on for more than 3 months. Now, he is suffering from fever for the last three days. We are aware that these are very much part of the growing-up phase for kids, but it hurts a lot to see an active kid confining himself to bed. His weight is also not satisfactory. Once he gets out of this feverishness, we will focus on his health a lot more than we do now and do whatever we can to make him a healthier kid. When he is down with fever, he will be confined to the sofa/bed. However, even if his battery gets charged a little bit, he is back to his own active naughty self grilling us with loads of questions, which is good.

Growing Big

Today morning, Anirud wore my shoes and proudly declared "Appa, naan big boy aayitten" (I have become a big boy!). hmmmm... that seems to be his idea of being a big boy.

Kids' Tree

Anirud likes the things that has got a 'kids' tag attached to it. Kids' Pizza, Kids' Dosa, Kids Bed, Kids' Cycle etc are his favourites. He is of the view (and rightly so) that they are being prepared with brats like him in mind and so, they are very special for him. Needless to say, whenever possible we do make use of this to push down our agenda. When he is in a playful mood and doesn't want to take food, any mention of 'Kids Meals' or 'Kids Dosa' will automatically bring him to the dining table. Apart from the above, sometimes he does assume that anything smaller in size are meant for kids. On the other day we were shopping at IKEA, Anirud suddenly pointed out to something and said 'Indha shop la kids tree irukku pa. Enakku onnu vaangi thariya?' (This shop sells Kids' Trees. Will you get one for me?). The thing that he was referring to was a Plant. :)

Bits and Pieces

Anirud seems to be getting better in playing back the happenings at his nursery. In the last few days, he has been telling us - how he played a monster inside the little house at the garden, how he frightened the little girl who happened to be his class mate, how he was made to sit alone as he did something naughty etc. In the recent weeks, we could very well see that Anirud's command over the language has improved a lot. He is responding nicely with a heavily accented 'yeah' or 'no' when thrown some questions. Most of the time, he is singing one nursery rhyme or other.

At the same time, he has become a bit moody of late. He feels shy when we have someone at home or meet them elsewhere. It takes a bit of time for him to warm up and start mumbling few words. He wasn't like that before. Hopefully, he will wither away this newly acquired trait.

We got a trike for Anirud last year. However, we are guilty of not giving him enough opportunity to practice it properly so that he could pedal all by himself. Perhaps, we should spend more time outdoors and let him pedal around with confidence. It is already time to get him a 12" bike.

Three Years

Anirud turns three today.
In the last few months, he has learnt to:

- Pronounce his name (including the surname) very clearly
- Initiate and continue multiple-sentence conversations
- Identify his and his mom's name where ever they are written (through pattern matching)
- Jump up and down
- Memorise quite a lot of nursery rhymes
- Identify few countries in the World Map
- Wear his costumes without any help
- Hold the pen / pencil properly
- Draw a circle, line etc
- Apologise when he does something wrong
- Use the pull-ups without that many accidents
- Converse with his teachers and mates in English

... and a lot more.

Many more happy returns of the day, love.

Unlike last year, Anirud's third birthday was a low key affair this time. We took him to the temple on Saturday and that was that.

In the bed, with the shoes :-)

Anirud is being read a moral / behavioural story every evening. There is one story where a little boy called 'Pepper' will come home from a party and refuse to change his costume or remove his shoes. He would want to sleep in the bed with his shoes. After a while and loads of advice from his mom, Pepper would turn a new leaf. The story end with Pepper's mom telling him that special costumes are meant only for special occasions and are not meant to be used at home, just like how one would not use tooth paste for polishing the shoes.

Whenever Anirud is in a mood to test our nerves, he will announce with a wink that he will be going to bed with his shoes on. Whenever he wears a party wear, he will say that he will be sleeping in that costume and look at our face for any reaction. The wicked smile on his face at that time will give away that he is kidding and the key here is to ignore him or smile away staying cool. If ever he thinks that we might admonish him, I guess he will try to test the limits by actually doing what he says.

Items on the Menu

Looking at a menu card from an Italian restaurant, Anirud appeared to be reading out something. When asked for what he was saying, he ran down the fingers over the individual items and went on like

Rasam Saadham
Thachchi mamm
Poondu podi saadham
Naarthangaai
..
..

Imitation

As Anirud's mom was lying on the bed immersed in a novel, this brat climbed on there lay next to her, picked up another novel and supposedly started 'reading 'it. :-)) It is a fact that Anirud loves books. Not a day passes without his time on books, but Jeffrey Archer does sound like a lot for his age. Don't you agree?

Favourite Underpants

One can expect to have a favourite dress, favourite food, favourite toy, favourite place.. but how about favourite underpants? Seems that Anirud has got one such. One day he was like 'ennoda favourite jetti nananju pochu pa' meaning 'my favourite underpants has got wet'. :)) Having said that, he is in the process of being toilet trained. He had had few successful accident-free days at the nursery (touchwood!) and we are hoping that the run will continue. At home as well, he is having nappy-free hours which are being gradually increased.