Busy little Raghav

Didn't like the backpack at first, but when he
discovered he got a bird's eye view of things
and that he could jump in it and pull daddy's
hair from behind, he loved it! 

Raghav is growing so fast, I already miss when he was lighter, quieter, and slept anywhere we put him. Travelling with him has gone from a very bad idea to something much much more manageable. Both on our way to Egypt this December, and from, we found that if Raghav gets a seat all to himself, he's more likely to entertain himself with discovering, for instance, the tray table or the window shade, the seat belt or the various buttons on his arm rest. He hates sitting on your lap all the time, squeezed in between mum and the front seat, and being forced to stay still. Give him some freedom and he mostly cooperates with you, as long as you don't cramp his style.

It's the same at home while changing him. The more you try to hold him still to change his diaper, or make him wear his pants, the more he wriggles and screams to get out of your grip. So now I just let him stand on the bed, looking out of the window or give him a toy to play with, while I even attempt cleaning his poop like that.

The toughest thing to feed him now at 16.5 months is yogurt. He tries to eat everything himself, and even manages to do it most of the time; with his hand or even somewhat with a spoon, but when it comes to yogurt, you don't want to put a bowl full of it in front of him because most of it will just end up on his clothes (especially since he hates bibs). It's even possible to do it at home, and I do encourage him to eat by himself at home, mess or no mess, but when we're travelling or at someone else's house, you don't exactly want to change his full set of clothes every time he eats.

I now leave his food on a plate in front of him, and he usually eats by himself, with just a few extra spoonfuls from me if it's something like rice or cous-cous that he can't hold in his hands too well. He loves spaghetti, and the way it feels in his hands, and always tries to put big handfuls in his mouth at once.

His defiance for us is increasing every day, as his eye catches the attention of the very same thing that he's been told not to touch every single day. He then directly looks at you while touching it (like the computer) to challenge you as well as to make sure that you're seeing that he will do what he wants to do; let's see if you can stop me. There's nothing really now that you can make him do if he doesn't want to do it. Most of the time his first instinct is to shake his head to a "no" if you ask him anything, even if you're asking him to eat his favourite food.

Playing peek-a-boo

We try to put him on his baby pot every morning, and he used to hate sitting on it at first, so much so that when I would go to fetch him from his cot in the morning, he would shake his head and refuse to come out because he knew I'd put him again on the cold plastic of the pot, wanting him to do something he didn't understand yet. He's more amiable to it now though, and sits on it quite easily, but wants to be picked up soon. We tried to keep him entertained while sitting on the pot at first, but it ended up entertaining him too much to do anything. Then I tried giving him his toothbrush (which he loves) while he sat there, but soon he was rubbing his bum with it and that had to be thrown away. All toys, food and drinks are not allowed either because they just end up inside the pot, usually after he has peed in it. So a few minutes of sitting on it and looking at himself in the mirror next to him and generally keeping himself entertained, and he's asking to be picked up.

He understands more than he lets on, but, almost like a teenager, will not do what you ask him to do. You can go on and on asking him where his nose is, and he will go on and on pointing to his ear and saying "ear", but then one day he will slip and absently point to his nose when you ask him that question again.

Nalin was making breakfast once and he wanted to be in Nalin's arms only, and shook his head vigorously to a no when I tried to take him. But when I said to Nalin, let's just put him in his chair, he immediately bent towards the chair and indicated that he'd be willing to do that.

His favourite game right now is to jump about. He sits on his car, and jumps on it, hoping that it will spring up and down. He sits on our tummies and face, and lifts his hands up and jumps, laughing with delight.

Shuffles about on his knees. Thinks it's his
version of walking, since he's not crawling
around like babies

He now remembers things from weeks and months ago, and tries to, for instance, play a game like we showed him to then. He used to love it when I showed him soap bubbles, but as he started growing he wanted to do the bubbles himself. He wanted to hold the bottle, and eat the stick (because he can't figure out that I don't actually eat it, I just blow into it). So I finally decided to keep it away from him because every time I took it out, the play would end in tears. After months of it being out of his sight, he spotted it once and pointed to it and demanded that I blow them again. He was the same with them this time too -- delighted at first, but then wanting to hold the bottle and pour all the soap water into the bed.

He also loves only a few particular books that we've been reading to him since he was born. He is obsessed with the book Pants, and no matter where you keep/hide it, he will find it and bring it to you and ask you to read it. He comes and sits on my lap on his own while I prepare to read him the book, because that's where I always sit him down. He also likes this book that shows other kids and names their body parts and what they're doing, like eating and drinking and sleeping. I think he likes looking at other kids. He also like this book called This Little Baby, and when it says in the first page "this little baby says hello", he always waves his hand and says "hi". (He says emphatic "bye" now, in the tram every time someone gets off, or at home when he sees daddy get dressed. He understands the difference though between getting dressed for going out, and undressing for having a bath, and says the appropriate "bye" and "ba" at the appropriate time. He also says "ba" for ball and lies down to look under the sofa for his ball. In fact, he thinks anything that's found under the sofa is called "ba".) He brings me the Goldilocks book to read to him, but gets impatient with the long sentences and the non-rhyme format. (It's the sing-song rhyme format that he loves in the Pants book, and he sways from side to side clapping his hands when I come to "pants to pick a daisy, pants for being lazy".)

Loves to point and gets things, but thinks
everything he points to should be given to him
(that doesn't always end well)

He started getting a bit bored of his bath routine, because his toys were the same, and his tub was still the same, and we thought maybe he was getting too big for the baby tub, but recently he discovered that he could bathe himself using a mug, and he's screaming again at being taken out of the bath.

When I change him for the night, he starts whispering "ba-ba"; that is cue for us to start singing "baba black sheep", and he whispers it because we sing it quietly since it's sleep time. Recently he has also started whispering "baba" now every time I change him; he thinks that's what we say every time his clothes are changed.

He is also obsessed with climbing steps and can keep himself entertained for hours on end climbing up and down stairs.

He's got a keen ear for music, and does a little jig every time I, for instance, mix the sugar in my cup of tea or whisk the eggs. He claps every time someone claps on TV, and again does a jig every time he hears music coming out of the TV.

He has become much more aware of his skype callers, and plays peek-a-boo with them, or laughs when they whistle; once when he saw my brother eat something on the camera, he pointed to him and gestured he wanted what he was eating, too. Every time I sit on the study table or the dining table with him on my lap, he starts saying "nani!" (He also says "dudu" every time the microwave beeps [because that's where his milk gets warmed] or every time he sees food.) He takes out all his toys and shows off to the people watching through the computer. He even took his first steps just to get accolades from his dada-dadi on skype. (He doesn't walk still, but goes about shuffling on his knees, holding his toys/food in his hands. I think he thinks of walking more a show now, holding his hands up as he walks and then collapsing in our arms at the end, clapping afterwards. He loves walking on the sofa, where he knows he will not hurt if he falls, and also tries to do front rolls that his daddy has been teaching him. But the dangerous bit is when he loves to sit on the sofa's arm rest and then jump on it or bend backwards to tease you and see the panic in your reaction.) But he tends to get bored now of skype conversations and doesn't stop play now for them. Often he leaves the room even while a call is on and goes off to do his own thing.

Can spend all day climbing up and down steps.

Even though he knows that sitting in the pram will take him out into the open which he loves, it is still a battle to make him sit on it. He also hates wearing sweaters and jackets, and already starts throwing a fit when you do that and then sometimes completely stiffens his body when you try to sit him in the pram. He hated his mittens first, and handed them over to Nalin and soon and Nalin had put them on him, but soon he probably realised that it was damn cold outside without them and now mostly keeps them on.

He loves being kissed and offers his cheeks for me to kiss him, often at times when I'm playing dead and trying to put him to sleep. Nalin and I were kissing once in the living room, and he saw us and came from the other end of the room, shuffling on his knees, to give me a kiss on my knee!