Getting friendly

I'm so happy to meet new friends

Raghav has really started communicating. Since we went to London in April, Raghav has been very friendly. He laughed and played with the ladies sitting behind us on the plane for the longest time. They played peek-a-boo with him, and he was thrilled, calling them with 'aye, aye' when they stopped.

Even on trams and in supermarkets when I'm buying the groceries he calls people out with 'aye, aye' sounds till they look at him.

On the tram he tries to catch the attention of any person who is in his vision, irrespective of whether that person is looking at him or not.

He's fascinated with dark sunglasses and probably thinks they're a game people are playing with him. When he first saw me wearing them he started laughing as if I'd cracked a joke. Now he laughs at random people wearing sunglasses in trams.

When we'd gone to Italy with him, we noticed that he suddenly wasn't too willing to give out precious smile to everyone. When we met people in the lift, he would look at them suspiciously and sometimes they'd have to work really hard to get a smile out of him. Perhaps he was just unfamiliar with his surroundings.

Back in Geneva, he has again started smiling at anyone who's within his vision.

When he fell ill with a viral fever and we had to take him to the hospital, he was really tired and very very sleepy by the time our turn came to see the doctor. In fact, he'd even fallen asleep several times in the pram and then in the doctor's room. But when the nurse finally came to weigh him and take his temperature, he immediately forgot about his bad mood at not being able to sleep in his cozy bed and started literally hankering for the lady's attention, calling her out with his 'aye, aye' whenever she looked away.

He did the same with the lady doctor. He was first very upset at being woken up and poked and prodded and started crying hysterically. But soon after he was calm, he again started trying to get the lady's attention by calling out to her and smiling cutely.

Open your mouth. Quick!

He also goes on diligently with his babbling, testing out every syllable he can. There's ba-ba, da-da, ta-ta, pa-pa, and other slightly indiscernible ones. He looks very carefully at your mouth when you make various noises, and sometimes then tries them out himself. He's currently fascinated with the existence of the tongue, and often reaches into your mouth to hold it.

He is often touching our faces to know what each part is. He's grabbing on to daddy's nose, or scratching daddy's eyes and inspecting the insides of daddy's mouth. He often holds on to my jaw while I'm talking, as if to see how I make that sound, and then to test whether he can make it himself.

The food monster

Mashed banana all over my face

Raghav has developed a roaring appetite, touch wood. He fell ill twice in a row and had almost stopped eating then, but since he's recovered, he has also more than recovered his appetite.

From the moment he sees his food being prepared, he starts getting excited. He will call out and utter sharp screams so that it's ample clear what he wants. When you sit him down in his high chair, he starts jumping excitedly and then banging his hands on the table; sometimes both hands for greater effect, and uttering his short sharp screams like he's scolding you to hurry with the food.

When he starts eating he continues with the jumping, banging fists and calling out between bites. Once he did that to Nalin even though he still had a mouthful of food.

When you go to get seconds, he starts crying and trying to get out of his highchair. Once Nalin was feeding him while I was preparing the second helping, and his first bowl got over but the second wasn't ready yet. Nalin hid the empty bowl from him and started feeding him with an almost empty spoon, with just wisps of food stuck to it. Raghav carried on eating for a couple of bites, but figured out quickly enough there was no actual food reaching his mouth. He then started trying to peep at his bowl which Nalin had hidden and calling out to Nalin for more actual food. Till then I arrived with a new bowl.

You can't eat any more with him around. He wants what you're eating. We've had to feed him everything from icecreams, to plain boiled rice, to shredded chicken and pastas... and then he cries when that gets over. You have to then divert his attention, which isn't too tough.

He doesn't stay quiet now if he sees anyone eat, whether it's on a train or in a restaurant. He makes his sharp calling sounds to show that he'd like to have what they're having, please.

You give him a tough piece of bread and he can occupy himself with eating it for 20 minutes.

It was when he was sick and not eating much that he started wanting to hold the spoon and feed himself. Although I wanted to encourage him to feed himself, I didn't want to do it then because he was hardly eating anyway. But I think he also tried to do that then because he was sick and didn't want to eat much and just wanted to play around with his food.

Nalin let him feed himself once and he pasted his whole face, head and ears with mashed bananas!