A Turkey is a Silly Bird

My neice and nephew had taught me a cute little rhyme a few months ago. It goes like this:

A turkey is a silly bird
whose head goes wobble wobble
It only knows this one word
gobble gobble gobble!

Anyway, I was entertaining the brat a couple of days ago, and remembered this rhyme. So, I sang it to him a couple of times. Mild diversion followed by end of story...or so I thought till he came running up urgently to me just now saying..."mamma...takki...takkkki...gobbal...gobbal...takkkkiii." A middle of the afternoon urgent song request, as it turned out. I've now repeated this rhyme about 50 times already and something tells me it will be buzzing annoyingly in the back of my head for a few weeks to come at least!

Trying to hold a conversation!

I taught Vir to respond to the question "tu kaisa hai" (how are you?) by saying "theek hun" (I'm fine) and he says it ever so cutely. But what's even cuter is that he already knows the difference between English and Hindi, because when I asked him the same question in English, he decided to answer me in English even though he had no clue what I wanted to know. So, our meaningful conversation went like this:

Me: Vir, how are you?
Vir: pausing to think, "Hello."

I laughed so much that now he thinks I was making fun of him and refuses to repeat the performance!

Ramdev ji, watch me go!

This is definitely much needed given my son's hyperactivity, but more than that it's just hilarious! Teta (my father in law) spent a few days with us recently, and Vir enjoyed that very much. He would wake up asking for "Kocha" (Vir's name for his granddad) and even now tends to run off to the guest room looking for him when he wakes up. He would watch teta do his Prananyam exercises (yogic breathing exercises popularized by the guru in the title) with much interest. Luckily, that paid off, because now when you ask him how Pranayam is done, he starts breathing out strongly and shakes his entire torso and head up and down with a huge grin on his face. I think Ramdevji would have a few tips for him on his technique, but noone can doubt his enthusiasm for this boring old form of exercise! Jogged by this, I have even taught him how to meditate. On request, he now closes his eyes for all of two seconds and hums "mmmmmmm." Thus calmed, he then proceeds to jump off the bed, on to Baggdu's head and off to throw a toy from the balcony.

Killer Looks

Teta came back from a trip to the US last night and one of the presents he got for Vir is a really cute red night suit with a dog print on it. The shirt has a big dog that says "I'm the boss around here" on it. Of course, getting Vir dressed after his bath was completely hassle free today, since the excitement of wearing something "new new" was just too much to let anything come in the way of it. I wish I could have taken a picture of that face - so confident and yet shy in the knowledge that there are very few others around here who can claim to be this dashing, and certainly, no one around here who can claim to have nicer night wear. He strutted around on the bed for a while so teta and Vijay could fully appreciate his style, and broke out in spontaneous self applause, which, of course, we all had to join in (or risk severe pointed looks from the man himself). I honestly don't know how he has fallen asleep today with all this excitement though I'm pretty sure there are going to be some sweet dreams tonight!

Can this really be true?!

Vir is showing an interest in golf! If you know my husband's golf mania, you can imagine how elated and hopeful this is making him. I think he's already dreaming about sunday afternoon golf lessons, choosing junior size golf sets, dinner table discussions about the perfect swing and how to improve his short game, cheering Vir on as he plays his first tournament, and living off Vir's massive earnings as a pro golfer as we travel to exotic locations and walk along beautifully manicured golf courses sipping our glasses of chilled white wine and talking to his fans about how this all started.

The humble beginning of this dream is that Vir has learnt to copy Vijay's mock golf swing - which is one of those things that men seem to do whenever they're standing around looking for something to do with their arms...if it's not a golf swing, it's a tennis one...or a mock cricket shot with a non existent bat. Anyway, Vijay was mock swinging away while he was waiting for dinner when Vir came in with his rendition of the swing. I have to admit, it's really good - the arms go all the way back, the swing is clean and goes all the way, he doesn't move his head, and if there was a ball around, I'm pretty sure his eyes would be on it!

Personally, I think golf is really boring for kids...they need to play something that makes them run around and sweat, not walk leisurely from one hole to the other and take a swing once in a while. (Cringe away dad and Vijay, you can't make me change my mind.) I do hope he takes to sports as he gets older and though I'd much rather it be tennis or squash, I'll live if it's golf. After all, I never can resist a glass of chilled white wine:-)

There are so many things that Vir does in a day that make me shake my head in frustration (to put it mildly), but when he falls asleep at the end of the day, I look at him and can't help but feel a little guilty for being even a little bit mad at him for what he puts me through in the day. He doesn't know he makes me tired and worried running after him all day trying to keep him from hurting himself or from breaking things in the house. He doesn't know I worry about him not eating, and how that will affect his health. He doesn't know that I'm sometimes frustrated about having left my job so I could look after him better and spend time with him. He doesn't know I try to discipline him so he grows up into a well-behaved little kid who can adjust well into this world. He just wants to do his thing and not have me cramp his style (don't we all?) So, I just want to put on record (you know, in case God reads my blog), that I'm super thankful that I get to look into my healthy and happy child's eyes in the morning when he wakes up and gives me that smile that is only his and that in a million years, I wouldn't trade this for anything else.

Among all the things that he does that frustrate me are also all the things that I cherish the most...the little expressions and gestures and habits that will surely be replaced by new ones as he grows up but that we'll love to look back and smile upon when he's off to college or married with kids of his own (yikes, how old am I to be saying things like this!!!?). Like when he shakes his head in a come-on-you-know-you-have-to way and says "car...car...car...car" every morning, hoping that today is one of those days when he gets bundled in his car seat and taken to some mundane errand with his mom because what can be better than that. Or when he checks to see if his bottle of milk is leaking before he takes a sip by tilting it ever so carefully and then screams "Mamta...mamataaaaaa" to get her to fix it whether or not it's actually leaking. Or when he comes running up to me with his urgent song requests for the monkey song ("ooo-aaaa-ooo-aa") or the fishy song ("pish pish") or Old MacDonald's Farm ("eieieieie"). Of course, he never listens to any of these till the end because the next request takes over as soon as I start with the first one. Or when he suddenly needs to enquire about everyone's whereabouts and starts listing them out insisting I tell him what's going on with everyone. "Nana?" "He's in Dun." "Nani?" "She's in Dun." "Papa?" "He's in office." "Didi?" "She's sleeping. And so should you be." Then there's his endless fascination with Baggdu - especially all the sensitive parts of Baggdu that are just asking to be pulled by his tiny but surprisingly strong hands. He says he's just doing "paari" as he's petting the dog, but before you know it there's a tail being pulled or an eye being poked. Of course, he always apologizes to the dog by putting his hands on his ears and bending all the way to Baggdu's head solemnly.

Actually, as I'm typing, I'm beginning to see that this could take a really long time. And when I think I'm done, he'll wake up tomorrow morning and do something completely new that I'll need to add to my list. Something that I'll cherish just as much, no matter how much you hear me complaining. God, if you're reading, thank you and please ignore the whining!