Sad when we leave

Pick me up! Pick me up NOW daddy!

Raghav seems to be going through separation anxiety. We went to visit Pallavi and Frank over the weekend, and Raghav, who's usually very happy to meet new people and constantly keeps smiling at them and charming them, didn't want to go to anyone's arms. We thought he was getting a bit overwhelmed with all the new things happening around him -- new place, new people, new toys.

When Pallavi tried to get him interested in a push cart, he started crying even though Nalin and I were standing just in front of him.

He played a bit with Frank later, and was very thrilled sitting on Neel's bobby car. When Frank pushed the car, Raghav was very excited. But a little bit more contact with Frank and again he seemed upset. So he was fine as long as the other person was playing with him from a distance.

But he was very interested in little Pia and tried to climb on her as she sat on her bouncy chair. He tried to grab her face and eat her hands.

However, he was very happy sitting on Neel's high chair and play with his toys while we ate our lunch. For the first time he was not demanding for us to feed him as Neel's little toys kept him busy.

He was similarly irritated at Mahesh's place when we went the next afternoon. He was happy to play by himself there, and was even playing with Mahesh's daughter Vilsu, but as soon as someone tried to hold him or things got too overwhelming he'd look at us and start crying.

It was only today that we realised that it was really separation anxiety when Nalin took him to the playschool -- where he goes twice a week and is very happy and very friendly with everyone (they always say they wished every child was as non-fussy as Raghav) -- and he started crying as soon as Nalin handed him over to the carers there. He wanted to stay in Nalin's arms and probably realised that Nalin was going to leave him and go.

They advised Nalin however to leave and that he'd be fine after he left, which is what happened. He was happy, distracted and playing in a few minutes.

When he doesn't want to leave your arms, and you put him down on the floor he stretches his arm out really long and gestures for you to pick him up again. And when you still insist you can't pick him up, he sometimes grabs hold of your leg and pulls himself up, still wanting to be picked up.

11 months

Raghav has started bending and picking up things from the floor while he's standing. It's the cutest thing he does nowadays. He stands with one hand on the couch (or whichever furniture he's holding) and then bends gingerly to pick up something with his other hand. He even prances around, crawling with his toy (or pen, phone, remote..) in his mouth between his teeth.

He's become very quick on the uptake. After seeing us do something only once, he tries to copy us, and successfully -- unbuttoning the change pocket of a wallet, removing the battery cover of a remote...

He LOVES bath time and even said "bth" the other day when I asked him if he was ready for his bath. He could be wailing over something, but as soon as I take him into the bathroom and he sees his little bath tub getting filled, he gets very impatient and then immediately starts laughing as soon as he is placed in the tub.

He has a variety of bath time toys, from rubber balls to squeezy cars and boats and a watering can. He loves them all, and squeals with delight especially when water oozes out of them. He tries to "catch" the water when it comes out of the watering can. When at the hotel in Barcelona, when Nalin had him in his arms in the shower, he tried to "feel" the water with his hands as it came out from the shower head.

Raghav has started flipping pages of books. It lasts a few minutes before he tries to eat it. Even hardcovers and board books are now given to him only under supervision.

The first time he asked for something

We were in a mall one day and were passing an area for children that had those big cars which rock and roll if you put money in them. As we were passing that area with Raghav in my arms, for the first time he bent towards something he wanted (apart from wanting to be picked up). When I put him in the driver's seat, he steered the steering wheel like he was a natural.

I put him in the sandpit the other day at the park, and he played with the sand for a good 10 minutes, first digging in cautiously and then finally going at it with gusto. After about 10 minutes he grabbed some in his hand and was ready to put it into his mouth when I intervened timely.