Six quiet dogs

Swimming still his favourite activity

Whenever Raghav is upset and crying, he goes on this random call of pointing to the computer and saying "didi, dadaji, chacha, niti, nani"... the list is quite endless. It's like he will only be calmed when he speaks to any of these people whom he will complain to about us, and who will entertain him in return. He doesn't even speak so often to "didi" (Tanvi), yet she's one of the prominent influences on him when he's upset. I think he truly had a great time with her when we were in Delhi.

He sits perfectly "gentleman"-like on the dining table now, and behaves very well when we go out for meals. Most of the time some food item catches his fancy and he busies himself with it throughout the time that we eat. He can also entertain himself for quite a while with dumping, scooping and counting (in his own language) sugar sachets (at least till the time he starts throwing them about, and then that becomes the game).


Since he joined school he has had a renewed interest in his toys. I had kept them all away because he had stopped playing with them, and would only like to climb tables and sofas and chairs and do monkeyness; but now again he can sit and entertain himself for several minutes, playing with Lego blocks and reading his books.

Eats like a gentleman

He identifies many things in his books; like in this doggie book that he has, every time I say "One dog", he goes "woof!" because that's how he's heard me read it for months to him. Also, at "six quiet dogs" he puts his finger on his lips and says "shhhh" (although currently that finger rests more at the side of his mouth and near his nose.)

New love

He also brings his tiger book (Tiger Who Came To Tea) saying "teya", and the Goldilocks book saying "fin" because he knows that Goldilocks eats all the porridge and that it's finished. He brings the Cave Baby book saying "baby", and finds it hilarious when I read to him the lines "a cracken in the bracken, a hyena's laughing there" in my loudest and most threatening voice.

He likes his Teacher Nana at playschool, and gets worried when he doesn't find her when I leave him. He also goes and puts his head on her knee while sucking his thumb -- which is his way of showing that he likes that person.

He now rushes into his class when I go to drop him, and doesn't look back as I leave. I go in to say bye, and sometimes get a kiss from him when I ask. (He's adjusted well to playschool.)

I took him to Ikea the other day (just on my own) and he started a chant of "icy" as soon as we got out of the cashier section. I had bought him a hotdog, which he did not touch. All the while that I ate my hotdog and cold drink, he continued his chant of "icy", and then uttered squeals of excitement when he finally saw me getting the ice-cream. He holds it and eats it on his own and screams every time we try to take a lick.

Learning new things at school

He likes to sit in the sink and take a little bath, which he calls "nahne". I think in his head when he sits in the tub and has a bath it's called "bath", and when he sits in the sink and has a bath it's called "nahne". So every time I tell him let's go nahne, he's expecting to be put in the sink, and gets very upset if I start filling the tub. (I think this has happened because I used to always say "bath" for bath, and only recently did I start saying it in Hindi for him.)

He has started saying a lot many words, like "wash" for when his hands are dirty and he wants them to be washed. He knows quite a few body parts -- eyes, ears, nose, teeth, cheeks (although he doesn't point this one out every time), feet, hands (these he learnt at school) and belly button. He also makes several animal noises -- bow wow for dog, meaow for cat, raises his hand like an elephant's trunk for elephant, hoo hoo for owl, sometimes mooo for cow.

In Singapore

Helping out with the shopping

Ever since Raghav stepped into our new apartment in Singapore he has been dancing and running around, swinging his arms and generally being excited at all the space available for him to do all these things.

He likes Singapore, I think. Because it's warm and there are lots of people around, no matter what time of day.

He starts getting excited even as we're nearing the playground, and then runs towards it. The first time, he wasn't sure how to climb the steps leading to the slide, and we weren't sure either, and Nalin had to climb up to make sure he was safe; but now he not only climbs on his own, he even slides down on his own and I don't have to stand below to catch him. He turns around on his stomach and then slides down so that he's safer. (I think he's learned it from his school.)

In the first month at school, he used to panic every time we handed him over to the teacher. But then I realised he just didn't like being pick up by someone else while I was around. So I told his teacher to just distract him with a toy as I slipped away. I used to always hate slipping away and not saying bye to him when I left. But now the past couple of times I have said bye to him, and he's said bye back and then continued to play. A couple of times, he's also refused to go home after school, and I've had to give him all sorts of incentives like "where are your shoes", or "let's get the bus".

When we reach his school, he starts saying "shoes shoes", and I take off his shoes after which he immediately grabs them and puts them in the shoe rack. Going back home also he gets his shoes from the rack and hands them over to me. Sometimes when he can't find them, and I ask him where they are, he makes a hand gesture (similar to the one I make) of "I don't know".

Such fun in India!

He has mostly been saying words in Hindi, because he interacts most with me and I talk to him in Hindi. So he says "du-du" for milk and "kha" for khana (food) and "nahne" for nahana (bath), and "pa" for paani and "ba" for bahar (outside). But he's also says both the English and Hindi for many words, like he says "woter" and "ba" for bath. Other than these words, at 20 months, he's been saying sit, car, t (tv), peese (please), so (sorry), patatha (paratha), woofle (waffle), bread, tho (throw), juice, ce-ka (cake), bun, book, baby, more, bottle, rice, nice, potty, susu, monty (monkey), cow, dog, fish, ti (tiger), fla (flower) etc.

At least once a day he demands to talk to didi or dedeji or dedi, or chacha or nani. The demand usually comes when he's crying about something else. When he does talk to them, sometimes he goes crazy with excitement and starts dancing and jumping and showing them the various things that he can do (like attempting a front roll), other times he just sits infront of the computer and "talks", sometimes punctuating every few words with a point towards something else.

He now copies us in everything we do. He sees you doing something once, and that's enough for it to be lodged in his memory. He sees me putting serum in my hair, and now every cream that he gets his hands on first gets rubbed into his palms and then put into his hair (just like mamma does).

He sometimes calls Nalin "nanni", after I've called him Nalin.

Morning exercise

He does know that I'm mamma, but he's often calling many people mamma. Basically, every one in the other side of the door becomes mamma. But when I bring him back from school, he passes the swimming pool and points and says "shim" and "daddy", and I tell him daddy will take him swimming later. Once home, I help him rings the doorbell and he bangs on the door saying "daddy". When we get inside, he looks around for daddy for at least a minute every day, before then asking me to take off his shoes. (He doesn't wear shoes at home, and hates wearing slippers because of the strap that comes between his big toe and the second toe.)

But he understands almost everything now. You tell him to go and wipe himself with his towel after his bath, and he does. He comes and asks you for more, and you tell him it's there on the table, and he goes and sees if it's there on the table. You tell him to go and give something to daddy and he does. You tell him let's get you to wear a diaper and he goes and gets the diaper for you. (It's another story that he refuses to lie down for diaper changes, and wants to wear his clothes himself.)

Tantrums come easily now, as when he wants something he really wants it right now. I have learned to either ignore them, in which case sometimes he gets over them pretty quickly when he realises no one's paying attention, or I try to prevent them in the first place by offering him a distraction before something turns into a tantrum. Usually singing to him puts him in a cheery mood, and he loves the songs "If you're happy and you know it" and "Incy-wincy spider". This usually works after he's had a long time in the water (either swimming or in one of those waterplay areas at the mall) and I want him out, but I know he's going to throw a giant big tantrum and lie down on the floor and kick his legs (something that he's picked up since 2-3 months), I usually start singing to him and he forgets that he's upset and starts doing the hand actions that I've taught him for "Incy-wincy spider".

Trying out Daddy's sunnies

But usually I've noticed the tantrum comes when he's tired or sleepy or has just woken up in the afternoon.
He knows the difference between when he's being taken to school, and when we're just going out, because he wants to be picked up every time I take him to school, whereas when he's just going out with Nalin and me, he simply bounds towards the lift and says "two" (because we live on the second floor and he always thinks that's where the lift is going).

His eating skills have greatly improved since school, and he's often able to feed himself with a spoon without spilling anything. Of course, yogurt still remains an item he loves to mess around with. He tries to "drink" it from the bowl (again, something he's probably seen others do with their soups in school) but it all ends up on his forehead and on his chin. It ends with him mushing his hands together to see how the yogurt feels.

Talking of spills, he's very particular about him and his surroundings being cleaned as soon as something gets spilled. Now he says oh-o every time he spills something, and wants me to clean it immediately before he eats/drinks any further. He also says oh-o when he presses a wrong button on the remote, or when something strange pops up on the phone.