Seems so long ago...

I haven't been able to get to this space for a while, since my uncle hasn't been well, and all of us have been with him. He's better now, and I'm home today after several days of being in the hospital. I discovered Vir's mostly blank baby book that I've been meaning to fill up for a long time, and decided that now was as good a time as any. So, finally, I have it almost done except for the spaces for pictures that still need to go in there. I also discovered a diary I had written for him the first days after he was born. It felt really funny to go through it today, especially since I had written it in the voice of Vir. Seemed like a good idea at the time, but it sounds fairly cheesy now. I'm sure Vir will have a laugh when he reads it when he's older. Here are a few entries from his first few days.

30th Jan 2007, 8:00 a.m: It's almost time for me to be out into the world. My mom, dad, nana, nani, aita, and koka are all here waiting. Well, nana is on the train on his way over. He will meet mum in hospital, where I plan to be born.

11:00 a.m: Mum is in hospital. The doctor is trying to decide whether to induce me to come out. Mom is praying that they do. I think she got pretty mad for a while there when the doctor said she might have to wait another week. Don't worry mum, I'm on my way.

12:30 p.m: They started the induction. This is going to be quite a ride!

11:35 p.m: I don't feel so good. Mum doesn't feel so good either. The doctor has decided to do an emergency C-section to bring me into the world. Mum is happy. Today is my dad's birthday so she's hoping I'm born today - then we can share our celebrations every year. I think God has slightly different plans though.

31st Jan 2007, 12:04 a.m: Wow! So this is what the world is like. I'm finally here. And that's my mum! "Open your eyes and meet your son" says the doctor to her. "Do you have a name for him?" "Yes," says my mom proudly, "his name is Vir."

12:15 a.m: The nurse has brought me out to meet my family. That's my dad! I know his voice. And these are all my grandparents. They seem pretty thrilled to see me. I don't have much time with them though...I have to go to a nursery tonight so mum can rest. I get to see them all in the morning. Yay!

11:00 a.m: Everyone came over - dad, nana, aita, and koka. They all made tonnes of cooing sounds at me and took a lot of pictures. Something tells me I should get used to this. Spent the rest of the day sleeping and waking up occasionally for some food. I got pretty hungry late at night and had to be given more of that artificial milk stuff. That doesn't taste as good but made me feel better.

A lot, and I mean a lot, of people came to see us in the evening. I seem to be pretty popular already. And I'm all of a day old!

2nd Feb, 2007, 11:a.m: Looks like I can go home today. The doc came in this morning and told mom she was all set to leave. I can't wait to see home...

4:00 p.m: All set. My dad brought the car to the front of the hospital and I stepped out, for the first time ever, into the world. It's a lovely day with a clear blue sky that I looked up at for the first time. I think I'm going to like this life.

5:30 p.m: I'm home! Everyone is here...even Baggdu. He's so excited to see mum that I don't think he's even noticed me. Aita has some prasad from a mandir she went to for me. She said a small prayer as we came in.

3rd Feb: I'm settling in well. I spent all evening yesterday and all of today just sleeping and eating really. Eating is proving to be a bit of a problem since I'm always hungry.

4th Feb 2007: Koka comes into my room once in a while to say hello. He loves to just watch me. I try to look back at him and wave my arms and hands a little bit for him. He loves that. All the grown ups seems endlessly entertained by the small things I do.

7th Feb 2007: I had my first outing today. I went to meet the doctor, who seemed nice until he pricked me with a sharp needle lots of times. He needed my blood for some tests. Mum and dad were around when he did that, and seemed quite worried. When mum told koka about this later, he said, "Don't worry. These are some lessons he's learning about life." What does he know?

8th Feb 2007: Aita and Koka have to go back to Guwahati. They don't want to but they have to. Maybe this is another one of those life's lessons Koka keeps talking about. He also has something else he likes to say..."the key to all this is positive thinking!"

9th Feb 2007: This morning, I had a photo session with aita and koka. Koka wanted some pictures with me - awake. That was the tough part. After several tries, mum managed to get one with me yawning, and one with my eyes open.

There are lots more from his first two months that are pretty cheesily entertaining. I'm just glad I have a record of all this...although I'll always remember what it felt like to finally have him and hold him, I had already forgotten some of the details in this diary and the early posts of this blog. After several busy and tense days, an afternoon spent remembering the early days of this brat was really refreshing! I'm back to this blog with renewed energy to record all the little things and big things that make life with Vir so great (and also excrutiatingly frustrating!)

Caught!

Climbed on a chair to get to the dining table and proceeded to lick the frosting off one of the pastries on the plate!
Does he look even remotely guilty?!

...and so spiritual too!

My 9-year old niece, who spent a couple of days with us this week has taught Vir the cutest thing. He can now say the following"
"Mata - Pita - Guru - Devta"
(mother - father - teacher - God)
Mata and Pita are really clear. Guru comes out Guddu and Devta stops at Devet. These words of wisdom about putting first your mother, then your dad, then your teacher, and then God because God is in the first three and disrespecting them would mean disrespecting God are especially profound coming from an 18-month old, don't you think? :-)

My efforts are paying off!

I've been trying to teach the boy some manners...starting with the basics...say please, say thank you, don't beat people on their heads with your bat...that sort of thing. He used to just scream for whatever he wanted till I taught him to say "please." Then, he moved to screaming till you looked at him, and then saying "please." But yesterday, he was in his car seat when he dropped the bottle of water he was holding. It was so gratifying to hear him gently say "pa pui" (pani please). I jumped all over myself to get it to him quickly so he doesn't start thinking screaming is a more effective way of getting what he wants. We're on our way...now if only I could get him to stop killing everything in the house with that wretched bat.

Why do I keep doing this?

I have been so lazy about posting for a while that there's now a huge backlog of updates from Vir's side of the world. I'm going to try and present an executive summary here, but I'm pretty sure I'll miss out stuff. So, Vir, some out of the last month-full of your antics are now never to be documented since I don't remember the details. Hopefully though, there are more antics where those came from, and I'll have more chances to write them. I can almost hear the forces that be laughing to themselves ("Crazy lady wants more antics, we'll give her more antics!") Here's a random list of things since the last time I posted...

• His vocabulary is now too long to keep count of. He basically tries to copy everything I say, especially if I say it slowly and deliberately. What amazes me is the number of words and labels for things he's picked up without any of us even realizing it. Like when he pointed to a cartoon in the newspaper and announced that it was a "cartooo," or when he looked at the mop lying in the balcony and informed me that it was a "pochu" (pocha is Hindi for mop.) Some of his words are so cute, I keep getting him to repeat them a million times a day...like when someone goes to the bathroom, I make it a point to ask him where the person is just so I can hear him say "baa-(long pause)-thoooom." That's also his response when I ask him where he should be going to potty, but of course, that's all just theoretical knowledge. He'll do well in a viva question about potty habits, but will flunk any practical exam on this all important of subjects.
• What's also amazing to me is how much Vir is constantly observing and absorbing whether or not we're realizing it. I didn't think, for example, that he can identify the sound of birds chirping. If you live in Gurgaon, you'll know why I might think this. But I guess there's hope for Gurgaon and there must be birds here, because he heard the sound on TV and accurately told us it was "chi-yaa" (chidiya being Hindi for birds). I'm beginning to think he now knows everything...he knows where things are kept in the house, he knows when we're going to be going out somewhere, he knows when others are going to be going out and are looking for ways to sneak past him, he knows when I'm thinking of going to the bathroom and trying to find a way to do it without him clinging to me and begging me not to go, he knows what time he goes to the park every day and that there's a routine for getting him ready to go and play - from drinking milk, to changing his clothes to applying mosquito repellant, to wearing shoes, to gathering his water and napkin and toy of the day, he knows when he can get away with something and when he's crossed the line, he knows how to make me come around when he's crossed the line, and most of all, he knows how to get his way. He's even beginning to figure out generalizations all by himself...he now calls all older males "bhaiya" and all older girls/women "didi" (older brother and sister respectively). It's pretty comical when sees Shah Rukh Khan on TV or a picture of Lakshmi Niwas Mittal on a book I'm reading and proclaims them his bhaiyas! Or when he stands in the balcony and yells didi or bhaiya to random passersby in the super loud scream that is now his voice for 70% of the day.
• The other big thing is the variety of extreme antics that he has picked up. Honestly, that boy does nothing straight all day. If I can't hear or see him for more than a minute, I can bet he's sitting behind the blinds in my room putting his fingers in the grooves of the window and licking the dust that comes off. If I can't find something, or if I see him looking deceptively innocently at something from the balcony, I know something's been thrown off the second floor. If he's not doing this, he's climbing chairs, tables, side tables, beds, bookshelves, balcony ledges, or our backs. If he's not doing that, chances are he's torturing Baggdu, which is his favorite pastime. God bless Baggdu for being as tolerant as he is. I guess one incentive for the dog is all the food that comes to him when Vir comes running asking urgently for a bicsuit or another snack and then goes busily looking for Baggdu to feed it to him. You scratch my back, and I'll pretend not to care when you pull my tail (or my balls, as has sometimes happened, much to the dismay of all spectators).

One thing is certain...he literally makes my day. He takes up every minute of it in a way that I can't really say I've been productive in the normal sense of the term. All I have at the end of the day to call it productive is a baby sleeping in my bed - clean from his bath to wash off the grubbiness of the day, tired from constant naughtiness, satisfied from his indispensable bottle of milk, and miraculously still in one piece despite the odds presented by his behavior and personality!

Current vocabulary

Mama
Papa
Aita
Nana
Nani
Buddy (birdie)
Oatu (oats)
Pish (fish)
Daail (dal/lentils - in response to the question, "what do you make in the cooker?")
Aaoo (aaloo/potatoes)
Tuppush (tamatar/tomatoes)
Mani
Mana (Mamta, the lady who looks after him)
Oma (Omvati, the cleaning lady)
Guddie (backup cleaning lady)
Moon (for moon as well as airplane since both are in the sky!)
Davai (medicine)
Baw baw (any animal)
Ditty (dirty)
Ca (car)
Po (potty)
Ba (bahar/outside)
Bo (ball)
Unka (uncle)

This list is getting longer by the day. It's cute to see him try out new words...sometimes you can see him trying to move his lips to make a word and then hear something entirely different come out of his mouth!

Change the topic, quick!

Every so often, Vir does something that makes me yell at him...take a swing at me with his plastic bat, bite Baggdu (yes, really), throw something off the balcony, throw something into the toilet, throw something into the mopping bucket...you get the general idea. When he does one of these things, he's fully aware that they're not allowed (fun as they may be) and chances of me yelling at him are high. So, he has a well prepared response. This is how our exchange usually goes:

Me: Vir, what did you do?
Vir (to himself): I think I'll just look at her dumbly for now.
Me: Vir, why did you throw your battery operated toy in the water?
Vir: *claps hands gleefully* (this should make her think I'm a "good
boy")
Me: No, Vir. You've done nothing great, so there's no need to clap.
Vir: (looks like this hasn't worked. What else does she like...oh
wait...my monkey impression) Ooo Aaa Aaa Ooo Aaa Aaa?
Me: No Vir, I don't want to hear your monkey expression. What
have you done?
Vir: She's a tough cookie. Try the dumb look again.
Me: Can you say sorry?
Vir: Oh thank God! An Out! *Puts both hands to ears in the cutest way
possible immediately cracking the tough cookie that is me.

Looks like I have to practice my stern face much more if I plan to make a disciplined little boy out of the monster I've been handed :-)