These days Anirud has started saying a lot of words. There are many words which we cannot understand when he says these, as he blabbers in his own diction. Yet it is such a cute thing to watch and listen as he speaks.
When his grandma was here with us in Kuwait, he started telling her “no touching” whenever she used to carry his bag or his things. Then he started saying, amma coming, paatti thooking, meaning when his grandma used to go down to pick him on his return from school he would say his mother is coming and his grandma is lifting him. Also he would say “paatti adicha” meaning…grandma has beaten him. He would actually beat her and say that paatti adicha. After her Patti has gone back to India, paatti is replaced by appa, that’s me. By the time his grandma left Kuwait, she trained him to say “paatti chellam” meaning if you ask him whose pet he is. Pat the reply will come, that he is his grandma’s pet. After she left Kuwait to return back home India, he searched her for a few days in the bathroom and would say “potti eduthundu poita” meaning she has left with her luggage. And then now he says, “paatti oorla irukka”…meaning grandma is away in town.
These days he has started saying, Sunday…to Saturday, January…December (pronounced as Duchumber)…the practice of saying the months and weekdays started in the morning when he does potty in the morning. His mother would sit in front of him and start saying this and he would repeat it along with her.
Couple of weeks back, we were quite literally surprised when he started crying after he spilled water on his shoe and asked us to give tissue to clean his shoe!!! Oh my gosh…kids these days at 2 years need tissue to wipe the dirt. I was not even aware of the concept of tissue until I was 32 years old and working for a multinational when I got to know about it.
Nowadays he has also started saying some of the rhymes along with his mother. Some of his favorite rhymes which he says, repeats after his mother are…in his own “mazhalai” tune…
- Lady bird, lady bird fly away; your house is on fire……
- Engine Engine no.9, when it’s riding on the Bombay line…
- Are you sleeping, are you sleeping brother john….
- Johnny Johnny yes papa…eating sugar no papa….
- Teddy bear, teddy bear turn around…
- I am little teapot….
- Twinkle, twinkle little star…
- Jack and Jill went up the hill…
- 1,2,3,4,5, once I caught a fish alive…
- One two buckle my shoe…
- Baba black sheep, have you any wool…
- Hot cross buns…
His favorite past time is of course to watch nursery rhymes on TV. Many a times we wonder, if it’s a bane or boon to let him watch this continuously. We practiced this to make him sit in one place to make him eat and this has become a sort of addiction.
He also says oh my god…happy to you (meaning happy birthday to you)…he became quite fascinated and at the same time frightened by the tiger, ever since he saw the human tiger at Ritika’s birthday party. He would say tiger “bayama irukku” meaning I am afraid of tiger. In between he started celebrating happy birthday to the tiger doll/toy we had at home…and would kiss him also. When I would ask him to kiss me, he would say no…go and kiss the tiger.
We bought a new car toy with a stick attached to it, which can be used to ply the car. When he plies the car, he would call me, appa come and also his mother, amma come. If I am sitting in the sofa and he wants me to play with him or move aside, he would say, appa stand up…appa sit there…appa sit down. If he wants to go out, he would say, let’s go…
Now he is also able to identify the shapes and put them in the right sorters. He is confused with circle and oval. Otherwise he can identify triangle, square, diamond, star and hexagon. He is also able to complete the fruit shaped puzzles and fix them with the right fruits.
He would also say sometimes namma veedu, meaning this is our house. He is able to identify and say most of the fruits, vegetables, vehicles, animals both domestic and wild, apart from other A to Z words for kids.
He remembers his playschool teacher’s name as Sandra, the maid’s name Fathima and the van driver (teacher’s brother) is called as Sanjeev bhai. The driver can actually paint, draw and does many other things with the kids. If you ask Anirud where he is going in the morning, he would say that he is going to school and where his dad is going; appa office and amma “aathula irukka” meaning she is at home.
He scribbles with his crayons in the books and also wherever he wants to, especially if he knows that we are not watching him.
If you now ask him how are you? he would reply….fine thank you teacher…then he himself would say…”yei” and say fine thank you amma…then again he would say fine thank you appa…man he knows how to flatteringly deceive you at this tiny age…
His mom has been practicing him these days to say slokas and his favorite sloka is….
“Vakrathunda mahakaya suryakodi samaprabha, nirvignam gurumedeva sarvakayeshu (sukadam) instead of sarvadam…in his mazhali words…
Also he is fascinated with Ganapathy bappa moriya, mangala moorthy moriya, moshika vahana (gananana) instead of gajanana…modaka hasta (gananana) instead of gajanana….ganapathy bappa moriya…
In the rhymes CD he was enthralled by the animated version of Ramayana trailer in which Rama would fight Ravanan. He would start jumping up and down and say Rama fighting… (For) Seetha…
When you watch those videos of him singing and reciting nurseries and rhymes with his Mom, you really are transported back to the blast from the past…it is amazing fun indeed…
Beautiful Life 