How do you get a ball out that's under the cot? If you are tiny and as flexible as Lil' General is, then you can just crawl underneath and take it out. But what do you do if you are a fatso and as flexible as a stick like I am, then you use a prop like a broom with minimal effort and 100% success. That was just an exaggeration; I don't weigh a 100 pounds if that's what you are imagining right now. I can't quite recollect the last time I used a broom or any such object to get something out. So it was totally mind-blowing to see LG get a broom from the utility area to get the ball from the under the bed. There was a folded mattress that got in his way preventing him from crawling underneath so he goes gets the broom; positions it but wasn't able to movie it sideways to motion the ball. With a little prompting and help from me, he was all excited to have ACHIEVED something for real, for once.
This was a few days back. So what does he do yesterday morning. Bored and ran out of games/toys to keep himself entertained, he decides to take out the parts of the Center Table. Yes, it was not the kind of day Center Table would look forward to much in the future. With its side rods mangled out of the holes, and totally satisfied with his undoing, he started fixing it back when one of the rods slid under the table. Totally calm and composed without throwing a tantrum or reaching for his subordinates (read: me, his grandpa) for help, he walks to the utility, opens the door, gets the broom and pushes the rod out with the broom from one side - goes to the other side and comes back with this huge grin which meant I am supposed to APPLAUD. Which I did. Now this praise from mom can;t be a one-time activity, can it? So he does it over and over again until totally satisfied.
Today, he found happiness in grating a cucumber salad for lunch unaided. A grown up person who knows it all and all that? You know who it works with an independent toddler two-months away from turning two, don't you? I'd rather not go into the details of the grating process' outcome. Let's just say, the cucumber went into the bin and it kept LG's mom occupied with scrubbing of the floor, cleaning for the following 15 minutes. There we go - with yet another game.
Game of the Day
Breakfast for LG's Best Friend
The time we live in Pune, Li'l General was deeply fond of Beethoven aka Caesar. If there's one regret I'll have in life, it is not taking a picture of LG with Caesar before we left Pune. During the last few days there, despite my best efforts it didn't happen as either Caesar's caretakers were busy with other commitments or I just didn't have the time to drop by amidst all the rain and packing. So after a lot of Googling, I found a St.Bernard - Beethu's breed- that looks almost like Caesar. Beethoven is the name we had give to the dog before we got acquainted and knew his real name - Caesar. Because of Caesar's semblance with Beethoven from the movie, he got his name. Caesar was all of 17 days when he moved to Pune, we learned later. The first time we saw him, he was barely a 25-day-old and LG was all of 10 months. With time, they grew fond of each other so much so that every morning uncle would stop by in front of our house if we didn't meet them on our morning walk and LG would smile at them from the balcony. Caesar out of excitement would gallop high and insist on standing in front of the gate. They grew together seeing each other a few times every day.
To the best of my memory, I think the first location LG started identifying which pointed to his sense of direction was Caesar's house. It was a corner house and no matter which way we went he would promptly prop himself up in the pram and say "bow bow" and would get doubly excited if Beethu were standing at the gate. With time, LG grew like a human child would and Caesar the breed he represents which meant he was above our waist when we left Pune and beyond a normal adult's control. Sadly, uncle would wave us off from a distance on spotting us for fear of not being to control Caesar. He would get so excited on seeing LG that once he almost tripped his pram. On yet another occasion when he was barely a two-month-old he pulled the sock of LG's feet for fun.
So, it's not surprising to see LG's affection for dogs, in general. The no. of pets here in Bangalore in the neighborhood we live in is almost zilch. There's a stray dog that lives within the apartment complex. LG has grown fond of it but I don't allow him to touch it though I take him every morning and evening to see him. This morning he took him bread for breakfast. The dog refused to eat and he came back upset. Continental breakfast for a dog used to eating idlis and dosas will revolt, won't it? How do I make LG understand! Anyways, I'm glad he has found a new friend.
Lil' General at twenty-two months..
-- is two months shy of turning two. I eagerly waited to do the post when he turned twenty-one months September 18, only to miss until it turned too late to be relevant anymore. So here I am, not wanting to missing the opportunity of recounting the month just gone-by again. Monthly birthdays are exciting...the steam builds up a couple of days before the event and on the 18th of every month, the day starts with "Happy Birthday" and goes on through the day everywhere - in the loo, while jo-joing (LG's vocabulary for bathing), walk in the park, eating sessions and just about randomly. The difference being, LG understands now and joins me with "Appy Appy" with this huge grin on his face gleaming with happiness that he is being made feel special. Isn't that what it's all about after all?
The milestones in the early months - from one to six months were more noticeable and easy to write about. But if you ask me the difference between what LG did as a 21-month-old and a 22-month-old it's difficult to pin-point to one particular thing saying he completely developed this habit this month. Many habits have been manifesting in subtle ways over the past few months such as his preference for using left hand over the right. His first instinct to pick up a piece of biscuit or feed himself or lift a crayon from the floor is his left. I'm not against his being left-handed or right-handed; whatever comes naturally to him is good for him. But when it comes to eating and shaking hands with others, I encourage him in a positive way to held out his right and slowly I realise he is able to use both his hands with equal ease and the first instinct still remains left.
His need to assert himself has grown over the past month. He insists on feeding himself. More often than not, he can't bring himself to eat more than 3 spoonfuls. I appreciate him on his effort but there are times when I run out of patience because the meal times just seem to take ever and at times I feel there is hardly anytime left between the previous one and the next session. As a child he was quite fond of plain milk. He has perhaps outgrown the taste and now likes it flavored with Bournvita or something similar. It's down to one bottle a day which again is out of my convenience for the morning and not because of his demand. My goal is to completely stop bottle this month and move over to the cup for all times.
I can't quite recollect when I developed a phobia for cockroaches. As far back as my memory goes, I've always been afraid of the creepy insect. Maybe LG is too young to understand fear. He doesn't battle an eyelid before picking up a big grasshopper or chasing tadpoles, frogs, ants, dogs and cats alike. The only time I saw him cry out of fear was when the power went out last night and the inverter was down. He was seated in his high-chair having his dinner with me sitting beside him when total darkness engulfed us. Tears rolled down his cheeks and he began sobbing; a good amount of reassuring that I was right next to him soothed him in a while. Separation anxiety is still there but he doesn't throw a tantrum if I step out for a while like 30 mins. He enjoys donning a hat all day and putting one on the horse and his other teddy friends too. 
His curiosity hasn't died down a bit; if anything it only gets worse by the day. LG lets the whole neighborhood know during the day that the power is gone and inverter is on. He goes onto check the lights on the mains, opens the fridge to see if the lights are out, then switches on the tube light and fan to see if it runs. And this process is repeated in a sequence atleast a dozen times and if it's our lucky day, the power comes back before he is done with certifying that the power is indeed not there. Or like the other day when he was all set to open the fridge with a knife.
One significant milestone of the month is his explosion in vocabulary. It's been over a month and half that he has gotten into one-nap-a-day routine; sleeps for over two-three hours at a stretch in the afternoon which is good. But it's become challenging to keep him actively engaged during the day and later in the evening as I run out of things to do with him. We do about two or three trips to the park in the morning once before breakfast and once before lunch. And then follow it up with a longer one in the evening and one last one to say good night to the moon before going to bed. At home, it's nursery rhymes time for an hour, seeing pictures of The Seniol and rest of the family for 30 mins, a visit to the neighbours' and then toys. Still we are always short of things to do as he can't sit in a place for more than 2 minutes - has to get the dough or water the plants or throw stuff into the sink or run into the bathroom. After a lot of conundrum on what is the right time for him to go to playschool, I finally made up my mind one morning this week that it was time to let my baby go for a couple of hours for his own good. Not much is going to change between now and two months. It's tough to come to terms of letting him go for the first time to be in someone else's care considering I've taken care of him every single day without a caretaker since the day he was born through my good days, bad days, through my sickness and days of being down and out. I try convincing myself he is too young to go to a play school which he is. At the same time it might do good to him playing with other kids. I took him to two schools nearby and both the times he was all excited while there and quite sad to leave. The expression on his face said it all though he cannot express it in words yet. The boy has inherited his expressive face from his mom, perhaps! So, he is all set to join one after Diwali.
I'm told the terrible twos phase is yet to come. But I sincerely believe it's arrived well before time. Temper tantrums are more one day with the little boy pointing his authoritative finger at me with that seriously frown on his face when he doesn't get his way; and then there are days when he is the perfect little charmer with twos getting terrific than terrible. He quite understands that his mother won't budge for unreasonable demands no matter how much fist-beating and fake cries he enacts. At the same time he also understands that with half the effort he can get his way with his grandfather. So he turns to him for all the unreasonable ones which miffs me. It's a challenge to mix grand-parenting and parenting. Because then the child starts understand his mom is not on his side so much so that I get slapped by him now and in the next breath he is trying to comfort me running his fingers down my cheek. I don't like raising my hands on the kid but I do raise my voice and he understands it is not right to do what he did.
On a closing note, having LG was one of the best things that happened to us. He makes everyday beautiful and living worthwhile.
Caught in the act
What do you do if your mother locks the fridge with a key? Try opening it with a knife : practical advice from Lil' General. That's what LG decided to do yesterday after crying and beating his fists didn't work out. So much so that even his pointing an authoritative index finger with a frowning face didn't move his mom, he decided to take things in his own hand and reach for the first suitable object which turned out to be a blunt knife. I'm at a loss of words for what to call this action: presence of mind or desperation? But firstly, I'm just surprised how the brain of a barely 21-month-old works. I've secured the tool section of the cabinet with a lock so screw-drivers are out of his reach now, else his instinct would have been to fetch that. Ofcourse, the knife didn't result in a positive response because his mom took it away for one; next it didn't rotate the way he wanted it to. "Not amusing mom!", said his look.
And then this morning, he decided it was time for his mom to haul her a** and get some cleaning done around the house with Diwali less than a fortnight away. So what does the kid do? He piles up the masala dabbas from the cabinets on to the vessel strainer making it easy for me to wipe the shelves and re-arrange it again. In the evening, he was only too happy to hand me the curtain rings one by one as I hung back the washed curtains.
My toddler son was extra-delighted to create an emergency last evening. My husband frantically calls me to ask what happened. I have no clue what he was talking about. He goes on to say in one breath, "You called 4-5 times continuously." I reply in a casual tone, "Really? Oh!" It's not PMS time yet for me to act crazy! Then I ask him what number did the call come from. No sooner did he say land-line, I saw the sheepish grin on LG's face as I mentioned the word 'phone'. He had been fiddling with the instrument a few minutes ago; since we use it only as a backup for the cordless and it's a long process to dial an outgoing number, I didn't give much thought to it. Who would have thought "Redial" is the easiest way out to get through such hurdles and there he goes interrupting his dad in class! I try to keep the phone out of his reach but who is to prevent an excited toddler who goes to extremes of climbing a center table and another obstacle to reach for the phone.
Toddler's a word a day
"Paesste. Paesste.", said LG one evening swiftly waving a tube of black glass paint toward me. It took me a minute to understand what he meant. It' not often that you hear my son talk any more than the very-emphasised "Mummmy" or "Pleeeeeease" or "Baschh".
Then in the morning at the bathroom two days ago, I was squeezing the tooth paste onto my brush while he was positioned comfortably in his potty seat for the morning ritual, when he blurted "Blusssh." I almost dropped my tooth brush in excitement when I heard this. He is giving me a heart-break by suddenly transforming from a ten-word-vocabulary kid into this surprise a word-a-day one. I ensure my ears are clean with no signs of hearing impairment whatsoever for fear of missing the surprise word everyday.
I wonder if this is what they call the vocabulary explosion. This milestone has been equally exciting as the other ones. For a moment, I thought maybe this was way better than the rest now that my child can communicate a few words and we can have a "conversation" - so what if it's a fake one! the real one can wait - I don't want him to grow up so fast. But then, I thought about all his previous major milestones such as the first turn on the eve of his third month birthday, the first time he crawled a few inches after making us wait in anticipation, the first steps at fifteen months and the first time he uttered a word - "akka" - in a shop. Each gave me a high and was equally exciting as the rest. The best part about this whole developmental thing is it comes when you expect it the least and on its own - I mean you don't a teach a 3-month-old how to turn unaided or I didn't teach the 15-month-old how to take his first steps (he didn't have a walker).
Some of the words LG says now are really music to the ears like "daaaaaa du" which is well prompted and said with so much care and affection that his grandpa rushes to his grandson where ever he is. I think the word he picked most effortlessly was "thatha". I said "thatha" once and he repeated as if he's been saying it for ages. "Papa" is always said with utmost care in a hush hush tone that you have to pay real attention to hear it. I know LG is coming home from his park trips as he calls out "mummmmy" from the bottom of the steps. I never trained him to call me "mummmy", it was just a plain "amma" as I call mine. So it was quite a surprise as to where he had heard the word and related it to me. Things kids learn!
The funniest of it all is when he calls up The Seniol and says, "papa stuuuu" for "Papa study." Who else do you think taught him that?
