September 2015 - Until akka's Birthday!

On July 10th you had your next set of vaccination. You liked to play with the weighing scale when we were waiting for the doctor. And you cried quite a lot for the pain of injection and later got a light fever as usual and cranky the next day.

You have reached that stage now. You cry for a variety of reasons and give us a hearty laughter though we can't laugh in front of you. And it makes it even funnier when your sister tries to explain you why such things cannot be done. So here comes the list -

You cry that I don't let you switch on and off the lights 50 times in a minute.
You cry that we do not let you rub music CD on floor.
You cry for not letting you pluck flowers from veena aunty's garden.
You cry for not letting you drag bicycle on the ground upside down.
You cry that you want to run on the slippery yard.
You cry that you want to pat chorante to sleep.
You cry that you want to spill milk on my bed.

You cry that Aadya doesn't let you bite her finger.
You cry that dead earthworm should walk.
You cry that you cannot cover yourself completely in a handkerchief.

You cry that there is an end to the bed when you run on it.

You cry that your feet don't get lifted when you try to jump.

You cry that you can't lift the bucket filled with water.

You cry that you can't successfully drink with straw yet, while your sister can.

You cry that your dad only pretends eating your play dough candies, but doesn't actually eat them.

You cry that your chapathi sticks to the lattanige.

You cry that you don't want clothes and in the evening cry that you don't want to take them off for bath.

You cry that you don't want to go for bath, and later cry that you don't want to stop bathing.

This list never ends. And also the list of unusual things that make you laugh.

You laugh aloud when the situation is serious. And most of the time when we warn you not to do something.

On 17 July 2015, you started riding on bike alone with ajja. You happily sit in front without anyone holding you and think that you are the one riding the bike when you go and get milk in the mornings.

19th July 2015 was the last day I breastfed you. Since 20th July, you are independent. I had to apply 'rakthavala' once again. And this time vaidya gave a more intense one. It looked even darker and much more bitter. You anyway didn't taste it at all. I applied it during the day and when you came for nursing, you immediately pulled your head back terrified with the black color! I had to lie saying 'amma has got booboo (pain)' and this is the ointment. You took another look at it, shook your head with disgust and cried with fear. Your sister too came running to see what happened. If it was only you, I didn't have to explain any further. But since your sister saw it, I had to to then answer hundreds of questions. Tried to tell her that I lied to Ani about the pain to stop breast feeding. But she is still small to understand two contradictory statements if I tell one for Ani and one for her. She gave the confused look and asked another bundle of questions and I gave up the idea of telling the truth to her. Stuck to the lie that I have pain and applied ointment.

You were sad, didn't say a word and slept on my lap without any complaints. After you woke up, every 15 minutes in between your play, you looked at my chest and asked me with a heavy moist voice, amma is it hurting. I said yes my baby. My chest didn't hurt even a bit, but my heart terribly ached for your innocent, genuinely concerned question and the way you kept stopping your desires not to hurt amma! Hard to believe that you are not even 2 with this kind of empathy. I had to fight back my tears most of the time and sometimes wipe it away before anyone noticed me and thought I was silly.

I washed bathroom one day and you came to me and exclaimed, "Abba! Entha male baindu illi!" (Oh! What a rain!?) Because you saw the floor wet and had heard us talk so when there was heavy rain.

You saw a helmet and said "toppi" and Aadya said immediately "no, not toppi thamma, it is called a helmet"! So you have a teacher right with you for the rest of your life. She is already into the job and has taken up the responsibility!

Appa has bought play dough for you and your sister and it is all time favourite for both of you. You usually get bored of new toys within a few days, but the interested in play dough lasted for so many days and you still play happily with it. 

Soon after you left mom's milk, one night you wanted to hold your Vinnie the Pooh while you went to sleep and you asked for it again when you went to sleep the next day. I was happy that you might start sleeping without much struggle here after holding the Pooh. But there was only one Pooh at home and we knew, the more you get attached to it, your sister too might fight for it even more. So as soon as we saw the sign of you liking it, your dad immediately bought another new Pooh online. But the interest lasted only till it got delivered to home and as soon as there were 2 Poohs, none of you played with any of them any more!

One day, your Jogibettu ajja was giving you your breakfast and you started eating in a great speed. He told you not to hurry, gadibidi ille, eat slow! And all of us forgot it. The next day morning, ajja saw you playing with your food and told you to eat faster. And you told him, "gadibidi ille........"!

For us now it is an old thing to come across people every now and then, who get amazed with your speaking skills and vocabulary. Be it a shop or hospital or a function, every where we get to meet people who watch you talk for sometime, listen to your correct pronunciation, complex sentences and your contradictory size, get surprised, come to us and ask for your age. When we say you are 1 year and 9 months old, they compare you to their near ones and tell us my son / grand daughter of his age barely talks a few words! May be he / she is slow in talking. We console them saying, no they might be growing fine and Aniket is little faster to his age.

Chips and other junk food are always your favourite.
You love to make your own lyrics and to the existing songs, you add your own words to the forgotten parts! Like for example "Jack and Jill, went up the hill" is "Jack and Jill, guddege hothu" in your song. "Daddy finger daddy finger, where are you?" Is "Appa finger Appa finger" in your song. "Wheels on the bus go round and round" is the song you never get bored of and have hundreds of lines added to it by you. Like "Ani ya bus is blue and blue, all day long", " Sanna bus says peem peem peem, all day long", "Bus ina baagilu open-koch, open-koch, all day long", " Akkana bus su mele-kela mele-kela, all day long" and so on.

You have a good sense of humor already and make silly jokes according to your age! Also, at times you know to crack a joke, wait for others to laugh first and then join them in laughter!

You are utterly stubborn in many things, you don't compromise your rules in any situation. The other day when we reached home from Mumbai, we all were tired after a long journey, I was thinking of giving you both a quick bath, feeding you lunch, putting you both to sleep and then do all that to myself too and get some rest. In that particular thing in my head, I quickly gave you a bath, wiped you, wrapped a towel around you and carried you to the bedroom without thinking of anything else. You cried your lungs out screaming to take you back to the bathroom. I thought you wanted to play in water and tried to distract you. I had forgotten that rule you had made before going to Mumbai that, after bath you want to walk yourself to the bedroom. I had forgotten it in 2 weeks, but you had not! So finally you guided me still screaming to the bathroom, wriggled yourself, got down, held my hand, proudly and quietly walked till bedroom!

Now you can correctly recognize colors and know most of them. Though blue is pronounced as buloo, red is ded, green is geen, brown is bown, black is back.

You did enjoy the train journey when we went to Mumbai. But after late evening, you didn't feel comfortable, wanted to sleep only at your house and only on your bed. You kept telling us to get down from the train and let's go home in appa's buloo car. Once you fell asleep after a lot of crying, then you didn't wake up until morning and you were very happy to get down from the train the next morning. At Mumbai, though you liked to play in the play area and loved the swings, each and every day you asked, if we can go home that day. Every time you saw a wagon R car or blue car, you asked if we can sit in appa's car and go home. You enjoyed akka's birthday celebration and loved the cake. After 3-4 days you started telling, going by train is fine and lets go by train and then by appa's car to reach our home. So finally your return train journey was good and you were jumping with happiness when you finally saw home!

June 2015 - Growing bigger in Talk, But not Size!

I feel terrible right now, because when I was about to publish this post of June, I just realized that it has got deleted somehow! I just learnt a new lesson to keep another copy until it finally gets published. I keep points typed in draft time to time and expand and put them together before publishing. Now it is impossible for me to recall all the stories that happened months ago. With heartfelt sincere apologies, I will try recalling as many of them as possible with my partially working dull brain!

You want ammi for everything like if you are in pain, you want ammi, if you are hungry, want ammi, if you are sleepy, wantammi, if you want to play, ammi becomes even a toy, if your teeth are itchy, ammi becomes a teether, if you are bored, ammi is for time pass, if you want to do thaachi, again ammi is what helps you! I am so dead worried about weaning!

On March 16th, I noticed that you have completely stopped crawling.

You pronounce words with the sound of their second syllable. For example, thantha is actually bantha, diddatthu is actually biddattu. Chochi is thochi.

On 27th march, you used toilet for the first time. We all were happy and clapped for you. You did it again on 29th, 31st, April 1st and then it was regular and now you use only toilet and no diaper poop anymore.

Your temper tantrums seem difficult to manage. Though now it is just too cute to see when you get angry, you seem quite stubborn and I worry that it might get harder to calm you down in the years to come when you get angry.

Thats why, though I didn't mind nursing you for a few more months, the earlier I stop, the better. When I think of weaning, I do know that I am going to miss the closeness with you and the cuddling. You are just too cute to stay away. And because I am the one to nurse you, I feel luckier to get more of those wet kisses and hugs compared to anyone else in the family.

Weaning was easier with your sister because she was just 10 months old then and you are 17 months old already. Demanding to nurse you the entire night which is giving me back aches!

So we brought a sticky black utterly bitter ayurvedic medicine called 'rakthavala' to apply, so that when you get the bitter taste, you voluntarily wean. Because no other ways where working and you cried your lungs out every time we tried to put you to sleep any other way than nursing.

That particular night all of us were prepared to see you cry and have a sleepless night for everyone. We had waited for a proper day to this. There was Shreyas bava's upanayana coming up on May 22nd and we waited for it to get over and immediately after the function you had fever and we didn't want to make you cry even more. So now since it seemed like the right time, I applied it after my bath at night. We allade sure that you ate dinner and drank milk well, since you were not going to get even breast milk later. Finally when you were sleepy, I took you inside to the bedroom to put you to sleep and all others were quietly sitting outside to hear the result. I nursed you, and you immediately pulled out your mouth, licked your lips with a strange look on your face, stayed that way for a few seconds and told me, "uppunkayi" (uppina kayi - pickle) and continued to nurse. I expected another 'pull out', but nothing happened and you happily nursed like always and went to sleep!!! Others who were eagely waiting outside, waited some more, didn't hear any cry and finally your ajji couldn't control the curiosity anymore and came into the room to see what was happening and you were happily sleeping on my lap! We all had a big laughter later and at the same time, wondered how in the world are we going to make you wean now!?

I have been saying words like jaayi, jeeji, donda, daadi since your sister was born and worry what if I permanently end up using only these words for the rest of my life!

There are two new words your sister created - pil pil (diaper) and dabi dabi (bath) and even even use these words like they are real words. So everyone in the family know the meaning of these words and also we all use them regularly! All thanks to your sister! I really don't know what made her create these two words.

You had slight cold and it made "grrrr grrrrr" noise when you breathe. You quietly listened to it for some time and asked me "car start aatha?"

You love to wash your clothes, clean the bathroom floor and walls at the time of bath. And what you love to do now, but might hate once you grow up is - dress like your sister! You love to tie a juttu though you don't have much hair and always fight for a kippu (clip) whenever your sister wears one!

You know the names of colors now, but don't know which name for what color. It is very funny at times, when you  ask for 'geeeen' toy and when I actually give you the green one, you point at red one and scream again 'this geen one'! You show a yellow butterfly and shout with excitement, "see! buloooo battatai". Point at brown candy and ask your sister to give you the white one. We grown ups find it funny, but your sister gets confused, tries to correct you and gets frustrated at the end!

Lizards on the wall help us to feed you, you get lost watching them and open your mouth for food without even realizing it!

You talk a lot and I can not keep track of the words you talk anymore. Even without people being around, you still keep talking and sleep talking makes everyone laugh as if you didn't get enough chance to talk when you are awake!!!

September 2015 - After 3rd Birthday

Finally you are 3! Or really, are you 3 already?

We tried to make your birthday just as you wanted it to be and hope you were satisfied. You looked satisfied and happy.

On the day of your birthday, we travelled by train to Mumbai. You were so eager for this travel all this while and enjoyed the first half of the train journey. For the next half, you were bored, woke up several times at night too. But you were not too fussy. Everything went on well and you were very happy to see 'Ashavaaka' (Ashoka) mava when he came to pick us up. We reached atthe's house and you still kept saying - let us go to Mumbai. You refused to agree that it WAS Mumbai. Much later we got to know that you called the kids' play area 'Mumbai' and rest all were - atthe's house, city, roads, malls, buildings and shops.

You cousins came home after their last day at school and in the evening, we decorated the house with balloons and birthday banner, dressed you up. All kids wore birthday hats and 2 cakes arrived before time. We didn't know which flavour you might like, so we had ordered 2 different cakes for you instead of one! Atthe had prepared carrot halva in advance for your birthday and had neat written - 'Happy birthday Aadya' on it with cashew nuts! We sand birthday song for you as per your wish and all of us had a good time.

You enjoyed the Mumbai stay especially the play area and also many huge Ganesha statues as it was the time of Ganesha chathurti.

As we had already told you, after 3rd birthday, there were no diapers at home and you did believe it. Though we reached home on 22nd, for 2 days we made you believe that we used your brother's diapers on you and on 24th, after a lot of crying, you used toilet for the first time and more than anyone else, you were in utter joy of achievement! You danced and clapped and jumped and laughed and went running to everyone to say that you used toilet. Even on the phone, that was the news you wanted to tell Appa and vijayajji! You got chocolate gifts from me and your Appa promised some for you to get the next day when he came home.

We went to Kalandoor thithi on 26th, and you showed a kite - gaalipata to your Kishan Anna. He didn't know that word and corrected you, it is not pata, call it photo. So it is gaali photo. You insisted that it is gaalipata and finally I had to come for your support!

You love stories and ask stories for every random things you see. Yesterday you asked me to tell the story of a wall in the living room. I told you how it was built when your dad was of Ani's age. You then went to your dad and told him - "when you were small and running around, I held your hand and took care of you, so that you don't fall. And when I grow up, you will grow smaller to be a baby one day and I will feed you rice, but you shouldn't bite my finger okey?" He nodded his head in agreement, and we were actually wondering which direction your thoughts wander. Correcting you that people don't grow to be smaller - didn't help as of now!

You love play dough and never get bored of it. Usually the interest in new toys last just 2 days and the interest in play dough lasted a month now and still continuing. Today I saw you had made a play dough flower and there was a hole in the middle. I asked you about the hole and you told me that it was for a honey bee to come a drink some juice from it!

Today I told you that water doesn't have any color (banna). I had forgotten that you used to call nail polish as banna when you were smaller and I had taught you the new word - nail polish few days ago. And today when I said water doesn't have banna, you told me - "yes, it doesn't have banna, nobody gives it 'naayi police'! I took a few minutes to realize that you were talking about nail polish!

September 2015 - Until 3rd Birthday

You are already so eager to have your 3td birthday celebration which is still a few months from now. You don't remember the first two. You have ordered Vijayajji to get gifts for you like the one Masha (from masha and the bear episode) gets from Santa ajja on Xmas day. And you want chocolates inside. Ajji asked what gift she should give to your brother and said, "don't bother. I will give him sippe (chocolate wrap) from my gifts!" 

You ask for something and if that can't be given then (like ice cubes before lunch) ajji tells you that is has got over, we shall ask ajja to get it from Pajapalla. Now you think that eerything in the world is available in pajakalla! (You pronounce pajapalla as pajakalla).

We have a few times hidden things from you (like harmful objects) and told you kaake tekondu hothu (crow took it away). And we were dumb enough to think that you believed it until the other day when Ani asked you for something, you hid it behind your leg and told him "kaake thekondu hothu thamma!"

Shailatthe keeps humming songs when she does some work and you had noticed it. I realized that when one day, there was an instrumental song playing and you said "oh! This is Shailatte padya".

On the way to Jogibettu, we pass a rubber factory and it stinks bad all the time. Several times you had asked about the smell and now every time you smell something bad, you call it rubbery factory. Including your own fart, you say, "see, I made a rubber factory"!

For your food, sleep, toilet and bath - both you and your brother are completely dependent on your mom and you don't let anyone else do that for you. 

You carefully watch what they do to cars in petrol bunk. There was a spare wheel behind your toy car and after it got broken, there was a hole left on that place. You started searching for a straw for that and I wondered what a straw has to do with that. When you found one, you inserted it into that hole and said, your car is thirsty, needs some petrol to run!

We bought a new plate stand for kitchen and as soon as we reached home, you brought all your dolls and pet toys and made them sleep on each shelf! It turned to be a bunker bed until it was fixed in the kitchen the next day.

After you saw fairies wheel in your video songs, when dad brought you a farm toy set, you used the tree stem, leaves and animals and made fairies wheel instead of what it was for. I was much happier for your creativity.

On April 2nd, you wanted to be called 'Aadyamma' the entire day. You also had 2 babies to take care the whole day. And you even took bath yourself! And the next day, you were Johny and the day after, you were Mary! You keep correcting us if we call you Aadya by mistake on the days you take someone else's part!

You keep comparing things to what you know. When you saw a new brush I bought to wash your bottles, you called it a Xmas tree.

You don't really like sharing things with your brother unless you are in a very 'good sister' mood. So usually you keep trying to make plans and tricks to avoid sharing things with him. But you also know that good girls share. Few days ago, there was a packet of balloons and you really didn't want to share any. So you opened the packet in advance and noticed that blue balloons were not there. You came to me and said, "amma, I will give blue balloons to Ani" and took out balloons one after the other saying "oh! It's red, not for Ani, now this is green, again not for Ani, see its yellow, so its mine Ani" and finally told "Ani, there is no blue, so I can't give you any"! And Ani was still waiting for you to give him his share and he was still confused about the reason for not getting any balloon! 

Blue is always reserved for Ani when you share things and you yourself have made that rule. May it be a packet of gems chocolate or your toy kitchen set or play dough! Blue chocolates are for him and the rest for you, if there was only one blue and 9 other color chocolates, it's not your mistake. If they wanted you to give equal share, they had to put more blues while manufacturing the chocolate packet!

I don't know how long it might work, but right now you enjoy each bit of big sister position. If you have to give him a toy, you don't hand it over to him, but hold it as high as possible and make your brother jump for it! He is still small to jump since he just started walking steadily is the only problem.

You and your brother, both watch video songs while eating your food and that helpse finish feeding you both withing half an hour, at the same time you enjoy the song and empty the plate as well. The other day, while watching the school bus song, you asked me whether all the kids in the bus are looking at you (Aadya). I said, no it is just a song in the laptop and the people in the laptop can't see you. And you immediately asked me, "then how Jai mama and Shailatthe see me while we do video chat?" I had not expected that coming, had to take time to make my reply and showed you the hole on top and told you that was the camera through which they see. It looked like, you were not satisfied with what I said and still had doubts. You just kept quiet and I tried explaining it again, but don't know if I really helped you understand.

Ever since your Shreyas bava's upanayana date was fixed, you had been asking when would be your upanayana. You wanted one for you and when we told you it is only for boys, you consoled yourself saying, I will have a birthday and boys will have upanayanas! It is since then you had been waiting for your third birthday!

On June 4th 2015, on your Ganapathy ajja's birthday, we all went to check your school on our way to temple. We wanted to see the place, meet teachers and see how you react. You saw the new toys there and 3 kids of your age and sat with them. Played with the toys and refused to come home. You even said, you all go to temple and I will stay here in my school. You already made it 'your' school and it looked like your dream come true on school going. As soon as you saw tge school, you looked around and asked your teacher, where is the 'jaarubandi'? So that was the only thing missing now compared to your dream school. You didnt even let me take you to the bathroom when you wanted to pee. You straightly went to your teacher and asked her to take you to bathroom and she gladly took you. We had to convince you somehow and take you to temple with us.

As far as I have noticed, you use left hand more - to scribble, to eat, to bat and to hit your brother! Looks like you are a leftie.

On June 9th on your mom's birthday, you actually started going to school. Started your pre-kinder garten at 'vishwa niketan shishu vidya kendra', Sonkal. Morning at 9 when ajja went to press, he would take you along in bike and afternoon at 1.30 he would bring you home when he came for lunch. You left home fully excited and loved the first day! 

We get to hear unexpected weird comparisons you make every now and then. For example, all of a sudden you point at your belly button and tell me, see this is my lid. Like how bottles have lids, I have my lid here! You even said, I don't have a tail, but thamma has one, but it is in front!

You keep a balloon inside your shirt and then eat a banana and think that the balloon is now growing inside your shirt from the banana you ate.

You have made me tell the story of Aadya's birth a million times. How mom's stomach grew bigger and got a pain and dad took me to hospital and doctor tested and told with a great surprise that there is a cute little baby inside. And how mom and dad wanted to see the baby and doctor took a baby out and parents were all happy and she was then named Aadya. And... Now every other day, your doll baby hides inside your shirt, your stomach looks big, amma doctor tests you with stethoscope and gets the doll baby out. And then you make me bathe the baby, wrap it with a towel and put her to sleep on a cradle. 

By the way, it is test-o-scope, not stethoscope. Because we use it to test! 

Appa opened his email with you on his lap and there was a calendar in the right corner. You said "see here, there are numbers! All other are abcd" You know the difference between letters and numbers now though we have not taught them yet.

I was trying to stop breastfeeding your brother, applied rakthavala on july 20th and was telling him that i have got pain and this is an ointment. You too came running to see what happened. If it was only your brother, I didn't have to explain any further. But since you saw it, I had to to then answer hundreds of questions. Tried to tell you that I lied to Ani about the pain to stop breast feeding. But you are still small to understand two contradictory statements if I tell one for Ani and one for you. You gave the confused look and asked another bundle of questions and I gave up the idea of telling the truth to you. Stuck to the lie that I have pain and applied ointment. 

Your brother saw a helmet and said "toppi" and you said immediately "no, not toppi thamma, it is called a helmet"! So he has a teacher right with him for the rest of his life. You are already into the job and have taken up the responsibility!

You are quite emotional and grasp such things quickly. I told Vijayajji about how you wanted to keep your head on my hand the previous night while trying to sleep, and how you kept rubbing your earrings against my hand and I got scratches all over. You were playing near us and didn't say a word. But later that evening when you were watching video songs, you turned to me and told to 'undo' your ear piercing and take the earrings off! I asked the reason and said that the pierced hole cannot be removed. And you told me, that the earrings scratch your hand at night when I sleep on it! I was speechless and I wouldn't mind even deeper scratches, but definitely don't want you take it so deep into your mind! 

You are almost three and of course you know to use toilet for peeing. You sometimes dont even ask help, go to toilet all by yourself! But of late, you are just lazy when you are deeply engrossed in play. First few times i thought it was accident and didnt say anything. But this time when you peed in pants, i acted angry and told you to use toilet. You were guilty, asked me several times - amma you are not angry, are you? And gave forceful smile. You kept asking me so with that guilty smile until I smiled back at you. When I smiled, you were happy and the next time you used toilet, you said, 'see I used toilet' with a huge smile.

One more week to go and you will be 3! This time you are eagerly waiting for your birthday. For your previous birthdays you didn't know much about it. And this time you want your birthday to have a cake, people to give you gifts, balloons and birthday caps with 'happy birthday' song! I already baked 3 practice cakes, though I am not baking one for your birthday. I just wanted to try if I can do it and gave up the idea after 3 trials. First one you and your brother loved a lot though the icing was not perfect all the 3 times. 2 nd one, we took it for Amritha Kayara fo her birthday and the 3rd one - as per your request, I baked for kitta chami's birthday (on Krishna janmashtami). Everyone might have prepared naivedyas at homes for lord Krishna, but we celebrated his birthday with a cake! Because you wanted it so! And our 2 little kitta chami's then cut the cake! 

I have told you that after 3rd birthday, kids are not allowed to use diaper anymore. You have agreed to it, but not sure how it goes and if that condition works! 

On your birthday this time, we are going to Mumbai to your atthes's house for a week your cousins have holidays for chauthi. You are excited about the train journey we are going to have on your birthday. So we might celebrate your birthday on 16th - the way you wanted at Mumbai. I am sure, your bava's will make it even more joyful! 

March 2015 - Days are Running!

It feels like, I have not updated my blog since ages. But I am going to try catch up from where I left with whatever I remember.

So when your dad came home from the USA on 2 October 2014, he was so eager to see if you would go to him. Your brother had not seen him since he was 2 months old. So we were prepared for him not recognize your dad. But if you had not gone to him, I am sure he would have felt terrible hurt. But you didn't let him feel so. Surprisingly, it looked like you knew him forever. You had a lot to talk to him. When he last saw you in person, you used to hardly speak a few words and now you had a lot of catch up to do with your dad. You amazed him with your vocabulary and even weight to some extent. You wanted him to bathe you, you wanted only him to play with you and you wanted to sleep only next to him and he was content!

On November 3rd 2014, you started sleeping without me rocking you only leg. It was difficult to make this new revolution, but it has made my life heaven! Not anymore I have to have a weight on my lap all through the night. Not any more I have to sleep thought the night in a straight position with only dreaming of bending my knee for a few minutes and now I can actually bend my knee. You have even started taking longer sleeps at a stretch at nights without waking up more than 3 times a night. You even fall back to sleep without much effort and crying. It is not just helping me, but even you wake up with a happy face in the mornings. Even you sleep comfortably without constantly keeping a part of your mind awake to make sure that your mom doesn't keep you down! 

Your days go taking roles of other people at times. Your Govinda ajja started calling you devi chami and now you sometimes wake up with the devi chami role and want us all call you so all through the day! That day - devi chami eats, devi chami drinks, devi chami plays and devi chami goes for walks - not Aadya!

Now you know full lyrics of many songs like -uddaa baaninda boochu biddatthu, tinkal tinkal, aane aane, ding dong bell, haalalla ketthi, malli malli minchulli, and many more. Also you pick the lyrics in no time when you hear interesting new songs.

You are so innocently and cutely positive about your brother. If he hits you, you tell me that he is patting you. If he slaps you, you call it rubbing the cheeks. If he pulls your face, he is tickling you! And I hope your brother stops it soon before you realize the fact!

Havyakana language we speak at Jogibettu is different than what we speak at Bekur. We say 'madugu' at Bekur and 'idu' at Jogibettu. You coined your new term 'idugu' and use it at both the houses. 

There was thithi at home and your Kanichar ajji had stayed at home. She had worn a saree of your Usha ajji and after a few weeks, Usha ajji wore the same saree on their wedding anniversary and went to temple and came back before you woke up in the morning. Later she put that saree for drying and when you saw the saree hanging on the rope, you immediately said "where is Kanichar ajji? This is her saree here". We were amazed for your memory! 

You wanted to try flying like a bird and you fell on the wooden hand of sofa and your nose bled quite a lot. It must had been really painful and the scar still exists after 9 months now. Every time someone asked you about the wound on your nose, you said " hakki haange haariddu, sofa adda banthu".

I was in a playful mood, cuddling with you, I said "Aanu ninna thinthe (I will eat you) and your immediate response with a pity expression was - "amma, hashu aavuttha? Ashana mum mum maaduva aatha?"

There is a particular dress of yours which you always called abibu angi since you were 20 months old. I new which is abibu dress, but I realized the meaning of it after almost a year, when your pronunciation became clear as "I love you angi". It had tiny hearts everywhere!

You had seen huge clown at Nettaru upanayana in 2014 february and got extremely scared of it though you wanted to see it again and again from as far as possible. I thought you might have overcome the fear. But in december, at your Kishan anna's upanayana, you were again terrified when your dad took you close to it. You  often remembered the bombe for months after upanayana and asked a million questions about it always. It was there in the video your ashok mama took and you watched that video a million times even after that. You love the clown and know it by theory that it is harmless and yet you couldn't overcome the fear either.

A few days after seeing the clown, neighbour Jogibettu narayana ajja had come home one day. He is dark and tall. I dont know what made you think that he is a clown. As soon as he entered the house, you screamed that it is a bombe, cried and insisted to bring thamma inside, asked me to put him to sleep immediately to keep him safe from bombe. The situation was laughable, but I couldn't laugh for 2 reasons. One was that you were scared and I had to first calm you down and the other was, seeing this little protective sister, I was speechless! 

You have got the habbit of wiping food from your mouth in your shirt while feeding. I told not to do so. And you said, "amma, neenu baayige hidseda thinnusuvaga"!

Your dad has brought a set of stalking game for you. I tried, but failed to teach you to keep it in order since you are still small for that. Your dad came in and said, " you don't know how to teach, wait I will teach her" and told you, "see this is the biggest and keep it first. Now this is the next biggest and keep it on top of that, and so on, now you try". You took a random cup and placed one on top of the other and dad said " alla puttu, it is small". You said "sanna ippadu matthe dodda aavuttu Appa, thamma dodda aayidilleya? Haange!"

Sometime both you and your brother laugh aloud together looking at each other for no reason. And it later turns to be a laughing contest and goes out of my control! 

You have shared mom's lap between the you two - left for Aadya and right for Ani. He is never allowed to sit on your side of my lap!

You had been getting introduced to atthe most of the time with mava with them. Like - Divyatthe and Ashok mama, Shailatthe and Jai mama, Arpitha atthe and Ashwin mama. When you met Mala atthe, you immediately asked her, where is mama? It was before her wedding!

Your Jai mama and atthe came from the USA in February for Mala's wedding and their bags were full of toys for you two. You both loved them and still fight for them. Dabi dabi is the favorite and we enjoy watching you both swim and splash. I had hidden some toys for later and later you found all one by one.

We were busy talking and buying new clothes for Shreyas bava's upanayana. And you kept asking if you will have a upanayana too. We convinced you that only boys will have it and you have to do aarathi. One day I heard you asking our worker Vasantha, if he is going to have a upanayana.

We were at Jogibettu when Edapathya Chandra uncle came home to invite us for bhootha kola. Immediately after he left from home, someone else came in and you asked them, if they met bhootha (ghost) on their way. You had thought Chandra uncle himself is a bhootha!

22 February 2015 - Mister Chatter Box!

               On October 26^th, 4 days after your first birthday, there were functions on your behalf at Jogibettu. You were named that day as “Aniket” with the help of the priest and officially we gave you rice. Your Divyatthe held you at the time of receiving blessings as per our traditional customs and you were sleepy and cried your lungs out. By the end of the day we all were so exhausted, but we celebrated

Deepavali together with the relatives. It was a beautiful end to your day. And on 25^th night, there were many close relatives at home helping with veggies for your naming ceremony’s lunch. So we prepared cake and celebrated your first birthday for the second time.

               You can now easily climb stairs up and down not reaching the top most stair nor getting down to the lowest stair. Usually you climb up and down holding something tiny in your hand, you climb up, throw that object down, go down and bring it up and throw it down again and repeat it 15 to 20 times without getting bored.

You also like sand a lot.  Your sister and you can go on playing in the beach for hours together without getting tired.

               On November 11^th, you climbed your cycle on your own without help. You give akka your hand to do "uddaaaaa biddatthu" and you laugh when she tickles. You keep talking the entire day and the only time the house feels quiet is when you are asleep. You repeat everything we say whether you know the meaning or not. Your ajji even tried complicated words to check if you repeat after her. You do try to say them all. If you are asleep and your sister is awake, she talks in a low voice and lets you sleep. But there can't be a time where you are awake and your sister is asleep. The minute you see her sleeping, you call her "akkaaaaaaa" as loud as possible until she wakes up. 

               Your vocabulary is very good compared to other kids of your age. There are 2 more boys of your age, we keep meeting them in functions and their mothers keep asking me what you do to compare with their kids. It’s been the same always that you are one step lagging behind in your motor skills. They already run everywhere and you have not started walking yet. But in vocabulary, you are far too ahead of them. They say only ‘appa’, ‘amma’ and you talk around 100 words already and also make sentences of 2 words.

               Here is a list of words you say now and know the meaning – appa, amma, akka, Aadya, ajja, ajji, doddajji, maama, atthe, baava, anna, thaal(car), peep(jeep), loli(truck), biku(bike), chichya(rickshaw), ele(leaf), mannu(mud), kolu(stick), naayi / bow bow(dog), mem(cat), umbe(cow), akki(bird), kaaka(crow), alli(lizard), chappal, chytthal(cycle), atthi(hatthi-climb), atthide(I climbed), chicchu(switch), faaan(fan), thaith(light), othu(hothu-gone), kantu othu(current is gone), jaayi(milk), jeeji(water), mum mum(food), gaaga(baaga-veggies), enne(oil), thale, kai, kaal, moonu(moogu-nose), nannu(kannu-eye), baai(mouth), allu(teeth), angi(clothes), nanana(banana), chacchakkai(bacchankai-watermelon), jooch(juice), peppa(paper), jojo(cradle), daadi(sleep), alli hopa(lets go there), puppi(kuppi-bottle), poon(spoon), pent(pants),

ganga(manga-monkey), kooka(koocha-let’s sit), kooki-adaa(hide and seek), dooda(donda-bath), dabi dabi(sit inside a tub), fof(phone), booboo(pain), thitthittu(kuttitthu-bang), cheeev(sweets), baby, peepi(flower), thaachi, alli opa(let’s go there), achim(ice cream), choket(chocolate), thaay thaay(thane thane-stand), thai thai(dance), jom(jump), jench(dance), thappa(bottu), dain dain(bells), beg(bag), ajeeee(ujji-hot), key, gaas(glass), etthi(carry me), thattatthe(namasthe), kattuvaaaana(katva-bigiva with action), on, open, kos(close), cheken(shake-hand), baabil(bagilu-door), khaali(empty), ille, battille, pip(clip), thauchi(thochi-throw), deda(beda-no), gaali(air), bale(bangle), bomba(tender coconut) and the list goes on.

               You have become ajja’s pulli. If it is not a time to sleep or feed, then you prefer ging to your grandpa than your mom. Ajja is your favorite and love to hang around with him. Few days ago, we were going somewhere in our car and met ajja on the way. He had come to drop ajji with us and he went back. There was no time to spend with ajja and anyway we were going to ajja’s place in the evening. But you didn’t know that and cried for 15 minutes. None of us could calm you down nor distract you with something else. Finally in the evening when we met him, you were happy. In a way, it is such a good thing to me, because I get some free time, giving you in ajja’s hands. And even he loves spending time with you and gets double energy and double smile on his face.

               You always like to stay outside the house. It doesn’t have to be going for a ride. Even spending time in the yard is fine with you. Hot sun doesn’t come on your way nor the chill in the early mornings. The minute you see the door open, you run outside and refuse to come inside even for food. Even before you started walking, you wanted to wear your sister’s shoes all the time. You used to throw a big temper tantrum if it fell off your tiny feet.

                 On 28^th January 2015, your height was 29.5 inches and you weight is still 8.5 kg.

                 Your sister has a puzzle which she calls ‘pizza’ and when she solves it, we clap for her. You have seen it several times and few days ago you kept a piece of that puzzle in the box and clapped for yourself with a proud smile. We had a good laugh looking at you.

               You pronounce ‘o’ as ‘au’. So thochi is pronounced as thauchi. When someone calls you Ani, you reply ‘au’ which is actually ‘o’ and then laugh. Sometimes you laugh aloud for your own reasons and we laugh looking at your joy and you get excited for no reason. If you see Aadya jump, you hold sofa and start jumping as well. Looking at you, even she imitates you and jumps holding the sofa.

               You are quite innovative. Use things for the purpose you are aware of. You use sticks to comb your hair, bottles to roll chapathi. You saw some hair in the bathroom and called it “meaow” thinking that it is a cat. You were lying down on my lap, remembered breast milk and didn’t know how to ask for it. You called it ‘bomba’(tender coconut).

Strange thing is that you don’t get tickled. People try to tickle you, you smile for them, but don’t get tickled. Your sister does “Uddaa baaninda boochu bitthu” to your hand and tickle you at the end. You laugh with her but, never move away from tickling.

               If ajji asks you, ‘what does the cat say?”, You tell her mewm. Dog is bobow, cow is umbe……, crow is kaakaa, hen is kokoko. You kaap saying ‘abbi pappaaaa’ with a particular tone all the time. One particular day, you kept singing it for more than 50 times and then next day you forgot it. After a week, it started again and after 15 days, we heard it again. 

               If we ask you to sing, you say “aaa aaaa aaa aaa” in a high tune and then we all have a hearty laugh. If we ask you to dance, you try to jump.

You like fried food a lot and also sweets, Chocolates and ice cream are your favorite. You also like those wild tiny berries we get around the house – like keple kayi, choori kayi, ajji budka and such things.

               When you don’t want something, you immediately say ‘deda’(beda). If I continue feeding you even after you said ‘deda’, you repeat it with a tone. And if I still continue, I hear ‘deda’ in a high pitch. Just to hear that funny tone and to watch the angry little baby, I pretend to be a deaf at times. If someone sneezes in front of you, you keep pretend sneezing for the next 10 minutes. 

               Like all other kids, peek-a-boo is one of your favorites. And you say ‘kooooo’ holding your ears instead of eyes. Because you know that if you close your eyes, you can’t see our expression.

               Since you have got your first 6 teeth now, we have started brushing them. You like the brushing time and even before the brush touches your teeth, you want to spit in the sink. You have seen your sister do that and you act as a grown up and try to spit though nothing come out other than the spitting sound ‘thoo thoo’.

               You carefully watch your sister all the time and we get surprised to see you do things after her. Few days ago, Aadya sand ‘a-b-c-d’ song, you said ‘e-g-g’. We laughed thinking that it was a coincidence. Your granny said, “oh! Even Ani know the song! Sing it again”. You immediately said with the right tone – ‘a-b-c-d e-g-g’! Also, a few days later, we heard you sing ‘nony nony yeh papa, nee nee nee na papa’! I wouldn’t be surprised if I hear ‘old mc donald’ a few days later!

                 Your mama and atthe have come from the USA on Feb 8^th, they have brought a lot of goodies for you – chocolates, clothes and toys. You loved them all, but didn’t recognize them. They were so eager to play with you and carry you. After the 3^rd day, you started talking to them and after a week, you became friends with them and started climbing mama’s head as well.

               You are so small compared to how your aged kids are supposed to look. You are 1 year and 4 months old, but still weigh 8.5 kg. So light to carry and your 0 to 3 month clothes still fit you. You are trying to walk these days. From last 2 to 3 weeks, you are constantly trying to walk and on January 25^th, we were at a wedding hall (Ashwin mama’s wedding) and you walked around a lot holding your dad’s fingers. On January 28^th, you walked a few steps without holding anything. And now finally you can walk upto 10 steps without any falls though you walk like a miniature drunk.