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.