Update

There's just so much that Vir has been upto since I last posted that I regret being lazy about writing earlier! Much has happened since I last wrote - the biggest thing being that we left him for 5 days and went off for a holiday. My parents came over to our place to look after him while we were away. I didn't want to send him to Dun instead since I wanted to minimize the number of changes he had to deal with all at once. I was absolutely terrified of what his reaction might be since he has been super clingy towards me over the last month or so. The guilt of going away to have fun leaving him looking for us and wondering where we were and whether we would ever come back and not being able to articulate any of this almost made me cancel the holiday that I thought I had planned on a whim anyway. In the end, the promise of 3 blissful days on an island punctuated by lazy swims, long naps by the beach, and lots of margaritas for once in my life won over, and with all the guilt, we went ahead anyway. I would have hated myself for this decision if he hadn't been okay while we were away, but Vir has thankfully saved me that trouble. He was absolutely wonderful...missed us a little perhaps but didn't really make a big deal of it. It would have come in the way of all the fun he was having with his nana and nani, who spoiled him in every way possible. He probably didn't have time to miss us or worry when he was basking in their attention 24 hours a day. He had them both at his beck and call and beck and call he did! Nana was playing ball with him at all hours of day and sometimes night, taking him out for a daily cup of ice cream, while nani was quite willingly sacrificing her lipsticks and all the knick knacks in her purse the hundred times a day that he wanted to empty it out! I'm so thankful that he was such an angel (you'll know what a favor this was to us when you grow up and have kids of your own, Vir) and more than that, that we have parents who are willing to do this for us.

The most obvious changes in Vir these days are in the way that he communicates. For one, he understands pretty much everything you tell him now. It doesn't even have to be baby sentences. You can just tell him to do something like "pick up your toys and but them in that basket," or "bring your sandals," or "go stand by the door because we're going out soon" and he just gets it and does it. I'm hoping it's only a short way from here to "change your diaper, take a bath, wear your clothes, and clean your room while I read a magazine." Or "fix yourself a sandwich and please make me some cold coffee while you're at it!" Of course, he only does things he wants to do...he has a little system that only he knows the details of according to which these decisions of what to obey and what not to are made. An instruction like "don't put your finger in the switch," or "don't climb on the side table," or "don't throw all your expensive toys off the balcony" are sifted out immediately in the "don't worry, she's not serious about this" bucket. But something like "let's go to the kitchen to get a marshmallow for you to eat" is moved to high priority obedience immediately. I guess it's not a complicated system. Fun things - yes. No fun things - no.

He's also started talking a lot more. He can always tell us what he wants now. He's not using full words yet - mostly only the first syllable of everything. Luckily, everything in his life seems to fit into four letters of the albhabet - b, p, j, and m. So there's baw for ball, ba for biscuit, ba again for "bahar" (out), bata for bat, baw for dog/Baggdu (our dog)/ any other animal, pa for "pani" (water), po for potty (which is a sad story for another day), ja for jam, which he needs with pretty much anything he eats, ja/je for random things he needs to point to in the day, and mama for everything else that he can possibly need to say. Who needs a complicated albhabet with 26 letters, when 4 will do just fine!

I'm constantly amazed at how quickly he picks up things and incorporates them into his world...adding bit by bit to his little bank of knowledge and delighting us with his comical displays of new wisdom! There's something new everyday, and I don't know what else I'd rather be doing than watching this miracle at work.